The court rejected the complaint of Ilya Yashin’s lawyers

On Wednesday, the Moscow City Court rejected the appeal of the lawyers of the oppositionist Ilya Yashin, who was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison on charges of spreading so-called fakes about the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine. The lawyers disputed the legality of the initiation of a criminal case.

How informs “Sota”, practically only relatives and the press were allowed into the hall, Yashin himself was present only via video link. Yashin was not allowed to give a pre-prepared speech – his supporters report.

The text of the speech was published in Yashin’s Telegram channel. According to the politician, it was not he who spread false information about the Russian army, but the generals and officials: “They lied – and I was telling the truth. He said that there is no special operation, that there is a real bloody war in Ukraine, unleashed by Putin. He talked about the crimes committed by Russian troops in the occupied territories, about the massacre in Buch, about the bombings of peaceful cities. About the monstrous damage caused to our economy, security and reputation. All this is unpleasant, inconvenient for the authorities – but true,” Yashin said in his speech.

On April 19, the Moscow City Court rejected the appeal against Yashin’s sentence, thus it entered into force. The former head of the council of deputies of the Krasnoselsky district of Moscow was found guilty of spreading “fakes” because of his stream in which he talked about the murders of civilians in the Ukrainian city of Buch. Yashin received one of the harshest sentences for this article.