A pensioner was sentenced to 7 years in prison for comments in “VKontakte”
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A court in Moscow sentenced 63-year-old Mikhail Simonov to seven years in prison for two comments on VKontakte. He was accused of spreading so-called fakes about the Russian army motivated by political hatred. This is reported by “Network Freedoms”.
According to the sentence, Simonov posted comments under posts about the shelling of Kyiv and Mariupol by Russian troops. Simonov wrote: “Killing children and women, we sing songs on Channel One. We, Russia, have become godless. Forgive us, Lord!” and “Russian pilots bomb children.”
Two “caring citizens” were seen in the comments. They turned to the hotline of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, because Simonov’s words contradicted the reports of the Ministry of Defense, and they “do not believe in the crimes of the Russian army,” Mediazona reported from the courtroom.
The prosecutor stated that Simonov blindly believed “propaganda” sources and ignored the statements of the Russian authorities out of hatred for them. Simonov’s posts from 2020 criticizing the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, were also included in the case.
“I was driven only by the understanding that human life is priceless,” Simonov said in his final words.
In recent years, Simonov lived in Belarus, where he worked as the director of a restaurant car in long-distance trains. In November 2022, he came to Moscow and was detained. The court sent him to the SIZO. SotaVision edition noted that the accused “hardly hears and speaks with difficulty.” Simonov himself told the court that he had “prostatitis and a lot of other diseases”, but despite this he was left in custody.
- The Russian authorities call any information about the war that contradicts the reports of the Ministry of Defense fake.
- An article about fakes about the Russian army was added to the Criminal Code of Russia shortly after the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Violation of the article is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. According to human rights activists, this article actually introduced military censorship in Russia.
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