Prosecutors seek 9 years in prison for journalist accused of spreading ‘fake news’

The prosecution on Tuesday requested the sentencing of Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko to nine years in prison, reports the business daily Kommersant. reportedquoting Ponomarenko’s lawyer.

Ponomarenko was arrested in Saint Petersburg in April for posting information about the Russian bombing of a theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on the Telegram channel “No Censorship”.

Ponomarenko is due in court again on February 14 to make his final statement in the trial, his lawyer Dmitry Shitov said.

In September, Ponomarenko tent suicide to protest against his provisional imprisonment. In July she was hospitalized and subjected to a psychiatric examination in hospital.

Shortly after the invasion began, Russia passed a law criminalizing the sharing of information about the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine that differed from the Kremlin’s account. The law also introduced prison terms of up to 15 years for publishing “knowingly false information” about the Russian military.

On Monday, Ukrainian-born Russian journalist and blogger Veronika Belotserkovskaya was sentenced to nine years in prison in absentia for “knowingly spreading false information” about the invasion of Ukraine.