Russian prosecutors seeking jail time for journalist in ‘terror’ case
>>MOSCOW: Russian prosecutors on Friday demanded that a journalist be sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly justifying terrorism in a case that has drawn outrage from supporters and rights groups.
Svetlana Prokopyeva is based in the northwestern city of Pskov and 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 after she wrote a piece about a bombing attack in 2018.
Speaking from the court, a defiant Ms Prokopyeva said the prosecution had demanded that she be sentenced to six years in prison and banned from working as a journalist for a further four years.
“This is revenge for hard-hitting — and apparently — spot-on criticism,” she said.
The court case has its origins in November 2018, when a 17-year-old anarchist blew himself up in the lobby of 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, Ms Prokopyeva, 40, linked the teenager’s suicide bombing to the political climate under President Vladimir Putin.
Half a year after her commentary was published gun-toting police commandos broke into her apartment and seized her computer and savings during a search, she said.
Ms Prokopyeva was also placed on Russia’s official list of “terrorists and extremists”.
The journalist has denied the charges, calling them punishment for her work.
Ms Prokopyeva said Friday she was not afraid of criticising the state.
“State power that has ended up in the hands of cynical and cruel people becomes the most serious threat to people’s security,” she said.
Without freedom of speech a crackdown on dissenting voices could get even worse, she added.
“Repression is unfolding gradually,” she said. “It’s impossible to predict when limits on freedoms and persecution of dissent will turn into concentration camps and executions.”
Tomorrow, the court is expected to announce its verdict in the hugely controversial trial.
Ms Prokopyeva’s employer said she had done the opposite of what prosecutors allege.