A Russian woman who left the country was convicted in absentia in the case of “fakes”

A court in Kirov sentenced local resident Maria Rose to five and a half years in prison in absentia on charges of spreading so-called fakes about the Russian army and calling for extremism. This is reported by the human rights project “Network Freedoms”.

A criminal case against Maria Rose and her husband Richard Rose was initiated in April 2022 due to posts about the murder of Ukrainian civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Buche. The spouses were detained by law enforcement officers. Rose reported that he was brought to the FSB building, where he was beaten and threatened to rape his wife. Maria Rose was banned from certain actions, in December 2022 she left Russia with her child.

Richard Rose was sentenced to eight years in prison in September 2023. He was found guilty of so-called fakes about the Russian army and calls to extremism. He fully admitted his guilt and apologized for his statements.

• According to the official data of the Ukrainian authorities, numerous journalistic investigations, as well as international organizations, such as the UN and the OSCE, hundreds of civilians died in Buch during the Russian occupation in February-March 2022, and there are documented cases of the death of the city’s residents at the hands of the Russian military. Moscow, however, denies this, representatives of the Russian authorities say that it was staged or that the residents of Bucha were killed by the Ukrainian military.