Journalist Novashov, accused in the case of “fakes” about the army, appeared in court

Journalist Andrey Novashov, accused in the criminal case of the so-called fakes about the Russian army, spoke in court with the last word. This is reported by Sibir.Realii.

The journalist is being tried for posts and reposts of messages in “VKontakte” – including about the attacks of the Russian army on Mariupol, which led to victims among the civilian population, including children. The prosecution requested 11 months of correctional labor for him.

Novashov disagreed with the accusations, considering the case fabricated. In his opinion, criminal prosecution is revenge for journalistic activity. Thus, the prosecution included photocopies of journalistic certificates and texts of Novashov in Sibir.Realii and “Taiga.Info” to the case materials, although they are not related to the essence of the case. According to the journalist, neither the falsity of the information he published on VKontakte nor the “knowing falsity” was proven during the investigation and the trial.

Earlier, the defense of Andrey Novashov and he himself repeatedly stated that Novashov’s repost in “Vkontakte” about the attacks of the Russian army on Mariupol cannot be considered “knowingly false information”, since its actual content cannot be refuted: official data on casualties among the population during hostilities in Ukraine were not published by the Russian side.

Earlier, during one of the court sessions, Andrey Novashov stated that his case is based on the fact that state bodies always broadcast only the truth. It is clear from the examples given by him that this is not so. “I may be presented with an article that I disseminated information that contradicts the point of view of Putin or the Ministry of Defense. But such an article is not in the Criminal Code,” the journalist said.

In the last word, Andrey Novashov drew the judges’ attention to the fact that the testimony of the prosecution’s witnesses coincided almost verbatim, and most of the witnesses were familiar with the employees of the “E” center who were involved in the investigation. In addition, some of the witnesses previously gave evidence against other Kemerovo oppositionists.

The journalist called the law on so-called fakes about the army “contrived” and “written in haste”, as well as “a powerful weapon in the fight against pacifists.” “Don’t you see that this law encroaches on freedom of speech and contradicts the Constitution?” – said the journalist, turning to the judge.

The Russian authorities consider the publication of any information about the war in Ukraine that differs from the version of the Ministry of Defense of Russia to be fake.

• Novashov is accused of spreading knowingly false information about the Russian army due to his Vkontakte posts. The journalist denies guilt. The investigator offered him to apologize for the published posts, but Novashov refused. For the period of the investigation and trial, Novashova was banned from communicating with the editorial offices of the mass media for which he worked.
• Andrei Novashov collaborated with Sibir.Realii, in particular, covering violations of the rights of prisoners in Kuzbass colonies, as well as persecution of human rights defenders. The president of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty media corporation expressed concern over the criminal prosecution of Andrey Novashov.