Russia convicts opposition councillor on fake-info-spreading charges
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Moscow: A Russian court convicted an opposition councillor who was critical of the regime on Friday on charges of spreading "false information" about the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
This is the conviction of a person, Ilya Yashin, of the high profile after the Putin regime's fresh legislation criminalising criticism of Russia's Ukraine invasion, Agence France-Presse reported.
Prosecutors called for a nine-year prison term for Yashin, arguing that he had caused considerable damage to Russia and "increased political tensions" while the Russian troops were battling in Ukraine.
Yashin was a Moscow councillor and is the latest among many who were sidelined for being critical of the regime. Crackdowns on critics have increased after Russia started its Ukraine campaign in February.
Judge Oksana Goryunova observed that Yashin, in full awareness of his actions, spread false information about the Russian armed forces. Thus he was committing a crime.
In April, Yashin had described Russian forces murdering civilians in Bucha as a "massacre". The murders surfaced after civilians were found dead in the town near the capital Kyiv after Russian forces withdrew from there.
The Moscow city councillor, Yashin, is an ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny as well as Boris Nemstov, who was assassinated in 2015. Yashin stayed in Russia and kept condemning Kremlin's brutal actions in Ukraine through his YouTube channel, which has 1.3 million subscribers.
During his hearing on the case this month, he demanded Putin to stop the war, saying, "immediately stop his madness, AFP quotes. He said that Russia needed to recognise that its policy towards Ukraine was wrong and withdraw troops from the country and resort to a diplomatic path for settlement. He strongly added that he would not give up the truth even behind bars.