A Russian court has sentenced the activist of the opposition collective 'Pussy Riot', Lucy Shtein, in absentia to 6 years in prison on charges of spreading "false" news about the army, a law introduced in Russia to ban criticism of the invasion of Ukraine.
The prosecution had asked for 8 and a half years in prison.
Shtein left Russia 2 years ago.
The online newspaper ZonaMedia reported the news.
The criminal case was initiated over a March 2022 tweet in which Shtein commented on an alleged video showing Ukrainian soldiers apparently shooting Russian prisoners in the legs.
“The guys came to bomb other people's cities and kill people, in response they shot them in the legs, even the Chechens were afraid of such torture,” Shtein had written, according to media reports.
Mediazona reports that investigators had refused several times to open criminal proceedings against the activist.
The newspaper claims that Shtein was initially accused of "justifying the use of torture" but that linguistic experts in June 2022 found no "justification of torture" in Stein's tweets, rather only statements about the commission of war crimes.
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