The professor will spend 5 years in prison and another 15 in a “strict regime penal colony”. (Representative)
Washington:
A Russian military court sentenced a professor to 20 years in prison on charges of “high treason” for sending money to Ukraine, and the defendant said colleagues reported him to authorities.
Russia has unleashed a mass crackdown on dissent or alleged support for Ukraine since launching the military campaign against its pro-Western neighbor in February 2022, with thousands of people arrested or fined.
Daniil Kliuka, 27, will spend five years in prison and another 15 in a “strict regime penal colony”, an anonymous spokesman for the jurisdiction told the RIA Novosti news agency on Thursday.
According to the court’s website, the verdict was handed down on Wednesday, with the defendant accused of “high treason” and “support for terrorist activities”.
Russian media group RBK said Kliuka allegedly made two cryptocurrency bank transfers worth between 20,000 and 100,000 rubles ($229 to $1,146) to a Ukrainian fund, “Come back alive”, which raises money for the country’s army.
According to the indictment, Kliuka also planned to send money to Ukraine’s Azov regiment, which Russia has classified as a terrorist organization.
RBK said Kliuka pleaded guilty during the trial. He was arrested in February 2023 in the Lipetsk region, south of Moscow, Russian media reported.
In a letter published last July by the Telegram group Politzek-Info, which covers political repression, Kliuka said he was arrested after doodling horns, beards and mustaches on people featured in a local pro-Kremlin newspaper.
After Russia launched its military campaign, Kliuka said his schoolmates noticed the cartoons in the newspaper and reported him, which led to his dismissal.
Kliuka said he made the sketches to “have a laugh” or “express his feelings.”
They also called the FSB security service, “they gave them these newspapers and said that I was interested in explosives”, he wrote.
He added that the money transfers found on his phone were sent to family members in the occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine, and that he was forced to confess that they were intended to finance the Azov regiment.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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