The journalist is accused of not registering as a “foreign agent” and spreading “false information” about the Russian army.
A Russian court sentenced Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), to six and a half years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian army.
Natalya Loseva, spokeswoman for Tatarstan’s Supreme Court, told reporters in the southern city of Kazan on Monday that Kurmasheva was convicted on Friday after two days of court proceedings.
The sentence was handed down on the same day that a Yekaterinburg court sentenced another US citizen, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, to 16 years in prison for espionage, following a three-day trial behind closed doors.
RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus called Kurmasheva’s trial and conviction “a mockery of justice,” adding that “the only fair outcome is for Alsu to be immediately released from prison by her Russian captors.”
“It is long past time for this American citizen, our beloved colleague, to be reunited with her loving family,” Capus said in a statement.
Kurmasheva, 47, lives in Prague and has been detained since October 18, when she was arrested while visiting family in her home region of Russia, Tatarstan. She had been briefly detained early last year while trying to leave Russia, and her passports were confiscated.
A court initially found her guilty of failing to declare that she had a US passport, required under Russian law, and fined her. A week later, she was charged with failing to register as a “foreign agent,” to which she pleaded not guilty.
Her husband, Pavel Butorin, who also works for RFE/RL, wrote in X: “My daughters and I know that Alsou did nothing wrong. And the world knows it too. We need her at home.
Butorin said her arrest was related to a book she edited titled Saying No to War: 40 Stories from Russians Opposing Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.
Gershkovich and Kurmasheva are among at least half a dozen Americans convicted and imprisoned in Russia during the biggest breakdown in relations between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
RFE/RL, which has been broadcasting news about Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union since the Cold War, is funded by the US Congress.
Russia has designated it a “foreign agent” and an “undesirable” organization, classifications that carry negative Cold War connotations and effectively ban it within Russia.
Russia has passed strict military censorship laws that ban criticism of its military offensive against Ukraine, launched in February 2022. It increased a decade-long crackdown on independent journalists and civil society during the offensive.
Hundreds of people have been prosecuted for spreading “false information” – which the Kremlin defines as anything not approved by the government – or for “discrediting” the armed forces.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
