Sasha Skochilenko, 33 years old, imprisoned (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)
Sasha Skochilenko, 33, imprisoned (Dmitry Lovetsky/AP)
Sasha Skochilenko has been detained in St. Petersburg since April 2022, accused of spreading false information about the army.
“The Russian army bombed an art school in Mariupol, where about 400 other people were hiding to escape the bombing,” he said. Another said: “Russian recruits are being sent to Ukraine. The lives of our young people are the value of this war. .
A visitor to the supermarket who discovered these slogans reported them to the authorities.
She was arrested a month after Russia passed a law criminalizing any public expression about the war in Ukraine that deviates from the official Kremlin line.
The law has been used in a widespread crackdown on opposition politicians, human rights activists and Russian citizens critical of the Kremlin, many of whom have been sentenced to long sentences.
Skochilenko denied replacing the value labels, but rejected the accusation of spreading deliberately false information.
He did not try to denigrate the military, but he tried to end the fighting, his lawyer Yana Nepovinnova told The Associated Press last week.
“He is a very empathetic and peace-loving person. For her, in general, the word ‘war’ is the most terrible thing you can imagine, as is the suffering of the people,” Nepovinnova said.
The independent Russian online news site Mediazona quoted Skochilenko as saying in her closing statement to the court that the fees being challenged against her were “bizarre and ridiculous,” so much so that officials at the facility where she is being held “open their eyes wide and exclaim: ‘Is that why other people are now being imprisoned?'”
He also claimed that an investigator working on his case had even quit his job and told one of his lawyers that he “did not sign up for the commission of inquiry to work on cases like (the one opposing Sasha Skochilenko). “
Addressing the audience before a room packed with supporters, Ms. Skochilenko said: “Everyone sees and knows that a terrorist is not being accused. You don’t test an extremist. Nor is a political activist examined. A pacifist is examined.
Her supporters applauded, Mediazona reported, adding that after the verdict was announced and Skochilenko was evacuated, they gathered in a room chanting her name.
The 33-year-old suffered her 19-month pretrial detention due to various physical conditions, including a congenital defect of the center, bipolar disorder and celiac disease, which required a gluten-free diet, her lawyers and her spouse said.
Almost daily court hearings in recent months have put increased pressure on Skochilenko, as his busy schedule prevented him from eating dinner.
At one point, the judge called an ambulance to the courthouse after falling ill and told the court it was his second day in a row without eating.
At another hearing, he burst into tears after the ruling rejected a request for a break so he could eat or at least go to the bathroom.
Memorial, a Russian human rights organization and winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, said Skochilenko, a political prisoner.
According to OVD-Info, a prominent human rights organization that monitors political detentions and provides legal assistance, a total of 19,834 Russians were arrested between February 24, when the war began, and the end of October 2023 for denouncing or protesting against the war.
Nearly 750 other people have been criminally charged for their anti-war positions, and more than 8,100 have faced lesser charges of discrediting the military, punishable by a fine or a short criminal sentence.
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