SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Russian blogger jailed for more than 5 years for massacre testimonies
Moscow, June 5 (AFP) Jun 05, 2024
A Moscow court on Wednesday sentenced Russian blogger Anna Bazhutova to five-and-a-half years in jail for livestreaming witness testimony about alleged Russian atrocities during the occupation of the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

"It's disgusting and vile. It's messed up," the 30-year-old defendant, speaking from the glass-walled dock, said in reaction to the ruling against her, AFP journalists heard.

The Ostankino district court in northern Moscow found Bazhutova guilty of spreading "fake" information on abuses by the Russian army in Ukraine on her YokoBovich channel on the Twitch livestreaming service.

Russia has waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent since it launched its military campaign against Ukraine in February 2022.

"This is a harsh sentence. We will appeal," her lawyer Andrei Nevrev said.

Ukraine accuses the Russian army of carrying out a massacre in the Ukrainian town near Kyiv during its retreat from the region in spring 2022. Moscow rejects these accusations and claims the massacre was staged by the West.

In June 2023, Bazhutova did a live broadcast including witness statements from people living in Bucha who directly accused the Russian military of carrying out killings.

Then "patriotic" bloggers who back Russia's offensive in Ukraine filed a complaint to police against her.

Two months later, police came to her home and confiscated audio-visual materials. Her seven-year-old Twitch channel was blocked.

Moscow made criticism of the military illegal shortly after launching its assault on Ukraine and has since detained thousands of opponents.

Russian courts have issued severe punishments for criticism, whether in comments to journalists, in social media or even in poetry.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Bioplastic habitats could sustain algae growth for space colonization
Boeing expands SES O3b mPOWER fleet with latest satellite delivery
China launches international association to boost global access to deep space research

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Growing evidence for evolving Dark Energy could inspire a new model of the Universe
UK lab promises air-con revolution without polluting gases
Bezos-backed methane-tracking satellite lost in space

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Planet secures 240 million euro satellite services contract with German government
Sceye secures SoftBank backing to launch HAPS connectivity services in Japan
Khamenei seen publicly for first time since end of war with Israel

24/7 News Coverage
Study challenges climate change's link to our wild winter jet stream
Successful liftoff delivers Sentinel4 on MTG satellite to enhance atmospheric forecasting
SatSure and Dhruva Space unite to deliver complete Earth observation service solutions



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.