Journalist Novashov was sentenced to 8 months of labor in the case of “fakes”

On March 6, a court in the Kemerovo region sentenced journalist Andrey Novashov to 8 months of correctional labor in the case of so-called fakes about the Russian army. This is reported by Sibir.Realii. The journalist was also banned for an hour from publishing on the Internet. The defense intends to file an appeal.

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. The prosecution requested 11 months of correctional labor for him.

The defense requested that Novashov be acquitted due to the lack of proof of his guilt.

Lawyer Maria Yankina stated during the hearing that Novashov’s repost in “Vkontakte” about the attacks of the Russian army on Mariupol cannot be considered “knowingly false information”, since its factual content cannot be refuted – official data on civilian casualties during the hostilities in Ukraine were not published Russian side. According to Yankina, the prosecution did not provide evidence of known falsity of the information.

Earlier, the Ministry of Defense of Russia refused to provide data on the number of civilians killed during the invasion of Ukraine.

The lawyer also pointed to violations during the investigation: three of the six prosecution witnesses are familiar with the employee of the “E” Center, who was engaged in the investigation. Linguistic experts, as noted by the defense, made mistakes in the dates, and also went beyond the scope of the questions within the framework of the examination.

Novashov did not agree with the charges. He considers the case fabricated. In his opinion, the criminal prosecution is the revenge of the authorities for his journalistic activity. Novashov 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.”

• 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.
• 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.