Russian artist who protested against Ukraine war gets 7 years in prison
TALLINN, Estonia — A Russian court Thursday convicted an artist and musician for replacing supermarket price tags with antiwar slogans, sentencing her to seven years in prison in the latest crackdown on free speech.
Sasha Skochilenko was arrested in her native St. Petersburg in April 2022 on charges of spreading false information about the military after replacing tiny price tags with ones that decried Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The Russian army bombed an arts schools in Mariupol. Some 400 people were hiding in it from the shelling,” one read. Another said, “Russian conscripts are being sent to Ukraine. Lives of our children are the price of this war.”
A customer at the supermarket who found the slogans reported them to authorities.
Skochilenko’s arrest took place about a month after authorities adopted a law that in effect criminalizes any public expression about the war in Ukraine that deviates from the Kremlin’s official line.
The legislation has been used in a widespread crackdown on opposition politicians, human rights activists and ordinary Russians critical of the Kremlin, with many receiving lengthy prison terms.
Skochilenko, 33, has not denied replacing the price tags but rejected the allegation of knowingly spreading false information.
A woman has gone on trial in Russia in the cafe bombing that killed a prominent military blogger who enthusiastically supported the war in Ukraine.
She did not intend to disparage the military but rather wanted to stop the fighting, her lawyer Yana Nepovinnova told the Associated Press last week.
“She is a very empathetic, peace-loving person. To her, in general, the word ‘war’ is the most terrible thing imaginable, as is the suffering of people,” Nepovinnova said.
Russian independent news site Mediazona quoted Skochilenko as saying in her final statement in court Thursday that the case against her was “weird and ridiculous” — so much so that officials in the facility where she is detained “open their eyes widely and exclaim: ‘Is this really what people are being imprisoned for now?’”
She also alleged that an investigator working on her case quit his job, telling one of her lawyers that he “didn’t join the Investigative Committee to work on cases
like [that] against Sasha Skochilenko.”
A top Ukrainian official says his embattled country’s troops have established a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River near Kherson.
Addressing the judge in a courtroom full of supporters, Skochilenko said: “Everyone sees and knows that it’s not a terrorist you’re trying. You’re not trying an extremist. You’re not trying a political activist either. You’re trying a pacifist.”
Her supporters applauded, Mediazona reported, adding that after the verdict was announced and Skochilenko was led away, they gathered in a hallway, chanting her name.
Skochilenko has been held in pretrial detention for nearly 19 months. She has struggled because of several health problems, including a congenital heart defect, bipolar disorder and celiac disease, requiring a gluten-free diet, her lawyers and her partner say.
While being held in St. Petersburg, it was possible for her to get visits from outside doctors, but what will happen if Skochilenko is transferred to a more remote penal colony remains uncertain, said her partner, Sofya Subbotina.
On his first trip abroad as Britain’s new foreign secretary, former Prime Minister David Cameron has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“There’s a huge fear that Sasha will end up without medical help,” Subbotina said.
Russia’s most prominent human rights group and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Memorial, has declared Skochilenko a political prisoner.
According to OVD-Info, another prominent rights group that monitors political arrests and provides legal aid, a total of 19,834 Russians have been arrested between Feb. 24, 2022, when Russian troops invaded Ukraine, and late October 2023 for speaking out or demonstrating against the war.
Nearly 750 people have faced criminal charges for their antiwar stances, and more than 8,100 faced petty charges of discrediting the army, punishable by a fine or a short stint in jail.
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