Pskov, Russia
A Russian journalist was found guilty on Monday and given a hefty fine for ‘justifying terrorism’ in a case that has sparked an outcry among her allies at home and rights groups abroad.
Svetlana Prokopyeva, who is based in the northwestern city of Pskov, works for the Russian service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) as a freelance contributor.
She was charged with publicly justifying terrorism over a column she wrote about a attack that targeted Russian security services in northern Russia in 2018.
The judge found Prokopyeva guilty, an AFP journalist in the courtroom reported, and ordered her to pay a fine of 500,000 rubles ($6,950).
Her supporters in the courtroom shouted ‘shame’ and ‘she is not guility’ as the judge read out the verdict.
Prosecutors last week had asked the judge to jail Prokopyeva for six years and ban her from working in journalism for four years on the charges that carry a maximum sentence of seven years.
The case has its origins in a November 2018 bombing carried out by a 17-year-old anarchist who blew himself up in a Federal Security Service (FSB) building in Arkhangelsk in northern Russia, injuring three service members.
In her opinion piece, published by the Pskov affiliate of the Echo of Moscow radio station, Prokopyeva linked the teenager’s suicide bombing to the political climate under President Vladimir Putin.—APP
