4 Russian journalists accused of working with the late opposition chief Alexei Navalny have been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail every.
The trial of Antonina Favorskaya, Sergei Karelin, Konstantin Gabov, and Artem Kriger on expenses of belonging to an extremist group has been held behind closed doorways in a court docket in Moscow since October.
All 4 denied the fees, arguing they had been being prosecuted for doing their job as journalists.
Prosecutors accused them of making supplies for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis (FBK) YouTube channel, which is banned in Russia as a “foreign agent” and an extremist organisation.
They’d requested for jail phrases of 5 years and 11 months for every of the defendants.
At a court docket in Moscow on Tuesday, the 4 journalists had been discovered responsible and jailed for five-and-a-half years every.
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Mr Kriger stated after the decision: “Don’t despair guys, sooner or later it will end and those who delivered the sentence will go behind bars.”
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Pic: Reuters
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Alexei Navalny. File pic
Supporters gathered within the court docket constructing chanted and applauded because the journalists had been led out of the courtroom.
Ms Favorskaya recorded the final video of Navalny participating in a court docket listening to the day earlier than he died.
At an earlier court docket look, she stated she was being prosecuted for a narrative she did on abuse Navalny confronted behind bars.
Talking to reporters from the defendants’ cage earlier than immediately’s verdict, she additionally stated she was being punished for serving to with Navalny’s funeral preparations.
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Antonina Favorskaya is introduced into court docket in March 2024. File pic: AP
Opposition chief Navalny, who died in mysterious circumstances in an Arctic penal colony in February final yr, was essentially the most outstanding critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He had spent years campaigning towards the Putin regime and corruption within the nation’s elite and led main anti-Kremlin protests.
Navalny was serving a 19-year jail time period on corruption and extremism expenses, which he denied, when he died.
Western leaders, Navalny’s allies and his widow accused the Kremlin of getting him killed, which Russia denies.
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The Nagatinsky District Court docket, the place the trial occurred behind closed doorways. Pic: Reuters
Mr Gabov is a contract producer who has labored for organisations together with Reuters. Mr Karelin, a contract video journalist, has labored for Western media shops together with The Related Press.
Stress has been rising on home and international reporters because the begin of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine in 2022, as Moscow has sought to silence criticism of its invasion.
Nearly 40 journalists and media employees are at the moment in detention in Russia, in line with the worldwide press freedom group Reporters With out Borders.
