Moscow. On Monday, a Moscow court sentenced a Russian-American journalist who accused the Russian military of committing crimes in Ukraine to eight years in prison.
Massa Geson, a regular contributor to the New Yorker, was declared wanted in Russia last year after he accused the Russian military of killing civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha in March 2022. The Kremlin has denied the allegations.
According to the statement of the Moscow City Court Service, the court sentenced Gayson to eight years in prison on the charge of ‘deliberately spreading false information about the use of the Russian military’.
After launching its invasion of Ukraine, Russia outlawed independent reporting on the conflict and outlawed criticism of its armed forces.
Gayson, who now lives in the United States, is a prominent LGBTQ activist. He is a long-time critic of President Vladimir Putin. He wrote a scathing biography of Russian leader Putin in 2012.
A Moscow court on Monday also sentenced a former deputy of a municipality to seven and a half years in prison in his absence for allegedly spreading ‘fake’ about the Russian army.
Russian fugitive Elena Kotenochkina has been found guilty of speaking in favor of deputy Alexei Gorinov, who was sentenced to seven years in prison after proposing a minute’s silence for victims of the conflict in Ukraine at a council meeting. Rasas
