CNN
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A St Petersburg court docket has sentenced a 19-year-old lady to almost three years in a penal colony after she was accused of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian military, together with by gluing a citation on a statue of a Ukrainian poet.
Darya Kozyreva was sentenced to 2 years and eight months, the Joint Press Service of Courts in St. Petersburg stated in assertion Friday.
Kozyreva was arrested on February 24, 2024, after she glued a verse by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko onto his monument in St Petersburg, in keeping with OVD-Data, an unbiased Russian human rights group.
The verse from Shevchenko’s My Testomony learn, “Oh bury me, then rise ye up / And break your heavy chains / And water with the tyrants’ blood / The liberty you might have gained,” OVD-Data stated.
A second case was introduced in opposition to her in August 2024, following an interview with Radio Free Europe through which she known as Russia’s conflict in Ukraine “monstrous” and “felony,” OVD-Data stated.
Throughout considered one of her hearings, {the teenager} maintained that she had merely recited a poem, and pasted a quote in Ukrainian, “nothing extra,” the court docket press service stated.
The anti-war activist has had earlier run-ins with the legislation, having been detained in December 2022 whereas nonetheless at highschool for writing, “Murderers, you bombed it. Judases,” on an set up devoted to the twinning of the Russian metropolis of St Petersburg and Ukraine’s Mariupol, the rights group stated.
She was then fined for “discreditation” a yr later and expelled from college for a put up she made on a Russian social media platform discussing the “imperialist nature of the conflict,” in keeping with Memorial, one of many nation’s most revered human rights organizations.
Describing Kozyreva as a political prisoner, Memorial condemned the costs in opposition to her as “absurd” in a press release final yr, saying they have been geared toward suppressing dissent.
Prosecutors had been in search of a six-year sentence for Kozyreva, Russian unbiased media channel, SOTA Imaginative and prescient, reported from contained in the courtroom. Video footage by Reuters confirmed Kozyreva smiling and waving to supporters as she left the court docket.
Kozyreva’s lawyer informed Reuters they’d probably attraction.
The decision was condemned by Amnesty Worldwide’s Russia Director Natalia Zviagina as “one other chilling reminder of how far the Russian authorities will go to silence peaceable opposition to their conflict in Ukraine.”
“Daria Kozyreva is being punished for quoting a basic of Nineteenth-century Ukrainian poetry, for talking out in opposition to an unjust conflict and for refusing to remain silent. We demand the rapid and unconditional launch of Daria Kozyreva and everybody imprisoned beneath ‘conflict censorship legal guidelines,’” Zviagina stated in a press release.
Russia has a historical past of trying to stifle anti-war dissent amongst its youthful technology. Final yr, CNN reported that at the very least 35 minors have confronted politically motivated felony expenses in Russia since 2009, in keeping with OVD-Data. Of these, 23 instances have been initiated since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
At the moment, greater than 1,500 persons are imprisoned on political grounds in Russia, in keeping with a tally by OVD-Data, with Moscow’s crackdown on dissent escalating because the conflict started. Between then and December 2024, at the very least 20,070 folks have been detained for anti-war views, and there have been 9,369 instances of “discrediting the military,” referring to actions together with social media posts or carrying garments with Ukrainian flag symbols, in keeping with OVD-Data.
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