MOSCOW: A courtroom in Russia on Monday (April 1) ordered a detained Russian American journalist to be held in jail for an additional two extra months pending investigation and trial, in an extra step within the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent and free speech.
Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was taken into custody on Oct 18 and charged with failing to register as a international agent whereas accumulating details about the Russian navy. Later, she was additionally charged with spreading “false info” in regards to the Russian navy.
A courtroom in Tatarstan Monday ordered her to stay behind bars at the least till June 5.
Kurmasheva, who holds US and Russian citizenship and lives in Prague along with her husband and two daughters, may resist 10 years in jail if convicted, in response to RFE/RL.
She advised reporters within the courtroom on Monday that she wasn’t doing “very effectively bodily” and that a few of her medical circumstances have flared up in detention. “Residing circumstances are very dangerous, I’ve no means of caring for my well being,” she stated, including that medical help within the detention centre was “minimal.”
