Russian justice sentences the father of a girl who drew a drawing against the war to two years in prison

"Dad, you are my hero

With these words scrawled on a letter along with drawings of rabbits and puppies, Maria Moskaliova,

, 13 years old and confined for a month in a Russian juvenile facility, has shown her love to her father in the trial in which he Tuesday he has been sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for opposing the war in Ukraine on his social networks.

The persecution of Alexéi Moskaliov, 53, and his daughter began almost a year ago, when the girl showed a painting in class against the invasion of Ukraine, and this Tuesday the Russian justice has handed down a sentence: guilty of the crime, according to the Kremlin , to discredit their Armed Forces.

The defendant, who attended the trial on Monday, has been missing since Tuesday.

The Russian authorities say that he fled during the early hours of his house arrest.

The convicted person's lawyer, Vladimir Biliyenko, has assured that he found out about the absence of his client from the court's press secretary.

According to the lawyer, both met on Monday afternoon.

"Dear friends!

We, like you, are very worried about Alexei.

We ask you not to panic or lose your temper about Masha.

In any case, we will continue fighting for them”, has requested a Telegram channel created by defenders of the family.

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The ruling by the Efremov court, in the Tula region, south of Moscow, was the first of two trials facing the Moskaliovs.

On April 6, a separate case will be decided on whether the father is deprived of parental authority over the minor, who is isolated by the Russian authorities: only the defense lawyer can access the center.

The minor's mother lives in another city and it is her father who has custody of her.

The nightmare of father and daughter began in April 2022, shortly after the Kremlin promulgated the law that sentences anyone who criticizes the actions of its armed forces in the war against Ukraine to jail.

The drawing that drew security forces to this family showed a woman with a child between missiles and the Russian and Ukrainian flags.

When the girl showed that anti-war drawing in art class, her school called the Federal Security Service for questioning.

That procedure led to a more exhaustive investigation of the father's comments on social media.

Finally, Moskaliov was placed under house arrest on March 1 of this year and the girl was taken away from him and placed in a juvenile facility.

Alexei Moskaliov's daughter's drawing, in an image published by the BBC.

OLGA PODOLSKAYA

In Russia, where the Ombudsman for Minors has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court against her for the deportation of Ukrainian minors, more cases have begun to surface in which family unity is in danger for having been critical of the war.

This is the situation of the activist Natalia Filonova, 59 years old and adoptive mother of a child under 15 with a disability.

The boy was sent to an orphanage in the Buryatia region earlier this month while she is investigated for allegedly assaulting police officers during protests.

Filonova, who has previously won three trials in which she was accused of illegal participation in anti-war demonstrations, also starred in another incident in which she was violently thrown off a bus for tearing off zetas

, the symbol of the invading army, which had been attached to the vehicle.

Dozens of people attended the trial on Tuesday in support of the Moskaliov family.

"These people are not interested in what happens to Masha, they are not interested in her future," said a woman against the authorities in one of the moments of the trial broadcast by the Sota Visión channel.

However, in the room there was an exception.

Svetlana Grigorieva, a member of the city's social council, remarked: "The issue is not the girl, but the father, who has violated the law with his aggressive actions against war operations and against the president."

"I will stay until the end, I want to see how he is imprisoned," the old woman said a day before to Sota Visión, and she fulfilled her threat while a group of war veterans waited outside to celebrate her confinement.

The Russian justice has thus complied with the request of the prosecution, which requested two years in prison for Moskaliov for his anti-war publications on a Russian social network, Odnoklassniki, and the ban on using the internet for three years.

This harsh punishment was modulated by the Russian authorities with an extenuation, having a young daughter, and an aggravation, making these criticisms during the development of what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation."

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