A Russian court announced four journalists guilty of extremism on Tuesday to cooperate with the Anti -Corruption Foundation, led by the opponent Alexei Navalnyand The prisoner was killed in Siberia prison in February 2024. Correspondents, respectively, received the prison sentence of five and a half years.
Antonina Favorskaya, Costanin Gabov, Sergey Carlin Yartim Crager They were convicted of participating in the activities of a group that the Russian government considers extremist. The four declared themselves innocent, claiming that they were persecuted to do their journalistic work.
The trial, which was held behind the closed doors, is part of the relentlessness Repression against the opposition against the regime of Vladimir PutinUnprecedented after the fall of the Soviet Union and the most prominent since Moscow deployed forces in Ukraine in February 2022. The authorities are following the authorities Activists, journalists and human rights defenders And the Russians on foot criticizes the Kremlin.
Favorskaya and Krieger worked in SotavisionAn independent Russian news agency still covers protests and political processes. Gabov is an independent product that has been working in many organizations, including Reuters. Karelin, “Freelance”, worked in Western media, including Associated Press.
The illegal character was added to the Navalny Anti -Corruption Foundation in 2021. This was a 19 -year prison sentence when he was allowed to die in Sibere Prison, located inside the polar circle in the Arctic.
Independent press is equal to extremism
In a previous court session, open to the public, Vavorskaya announced that he was followed through an article in which he described The violations that Navalni faced between the bars. Speaking to reporters of the defendant’s cell, before announcing the ruling, Favorskaya also confirmed that he was punished To help organize Navalni funeral.
Gabov, in a final claim prepared for trial and published by the independent newspaper.Gazeta NovayaHe emphasized that the charges imposed on him lack the basis and not tested. “I am completely aware of the country I live in. Throughout history, Russia was not different before “There is nothing new in the current situation,” Jabov said in a statement. “Independent press is equivalent to extremism,” Jabov said in a statement.
In another statement prepared by Carlin for his final claim, which also published “Novaya Gazzeta”, the reporter says he had interviewed with “Popular Policy”, YouTube channel founded by Navalni membersTo preserve his wife and young son. Carlin recalled that the channel was not illegal by a “extremist” and that he did nothing illegal. He wrote in another letter before the court: “I am in prison for my work, because of my sincere and neutral position in the press, for my love for my family and my country,” he wrote in another letter before the court.
In the final data published by Sotiss, Krieger claimed that he was imprisoned and It included in the record of extremists and terrorists “Because he honestly fulfilled his career as a sincere, unprecedented and independent journalist for 4.5 years.”
The supporters who gathered on the field chanted and praised them while the four journalists were drove outside the room after he knew the referee. The Russian Organization for the Defense of Human Rights described the memorial to the four journalists as it Political prisoners. Among them is Michael Crager, uncle Artem, Moscowette activist who was arrested in 2022 and celebrates the prison sentence for seven years.
