MOSCOW: A Russian courtroom has sentenced US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to greater than six years in jail for violating strict navy censorship legal guidelines, a ruling her employer slammed as a “mockery of justice”.
Kurmasheva, 47 was convicted on Friday (Jul 19) in a secret trial that was not introduced prematurely – the identical day a separate Russian courtroom sentenced US journalist Evan Gershkovich for 16 years on espionage costs.
Each journalists have rejected the fees as baseless.
Kurmasheva, an editor with the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) outlet in Prague, was arrested final 12 months whereas travelling to Russia to see her sick mom.
She had her passports confiscated for not declaring her twin citizenship, was then arrested for not registering as a “overseas agent”, and whereas in pre-trial detention was hit with the extra severe “false data” cost.
Particulars of Kurmasheva’s conviction have been solely launched Monday, together with her employer and household saved at nighttime.
“On Friday, Alsu Kurmasheva was sentenced. Six years, six months,” Natalya Loseva, a spokesperson for the Supreme Courtroom of Tatarstan, advised AFP.
The courtroom’s web site states solely that she had been discovered responsible in a listening to on Friday, with no particulars of the sentence.
“This secret trial and conviction make a mockery of justice,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus advised AFP in an emailed assertion.
“The one simply final result is for Alsu to be instantly launched from jail by her Russian captors. It is past time for this American citizen, our pricey colleague, to be reunited together with her loving household.”
“NO EVIDENCE”
Russia usually holds trials behind closed doorways, however issuing a verdict and sentencing in such a way is uncommon.
On Friday, the day Kurmasheva was sentenced, her husband had slammed the “secrecy” over the proceedings.
“Her household is at nighttime a few trial date or any precise ‘proof’ of Alsu’s ‘guilt’,”, Pavel Butorin, who additionally works at RFE/RL, stated in a submit on X, previously Twitter.
“They’ve produced no public proof that her work as an American journalist ever contained falsehoods or inaccuracies. It doesn’t matter what an unjust Russian courtroom could discover Alsu responsible of, we all know that she is just not a legal,” he added.
