An exiled Russian reporter who protested against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine live on state TV has been sentenced to eight years in jail in absentia.
Marina Ovsyannikova received the hefty jail term on Wednesday, October 4 for “discrediting” the Russian army.
In March 2022, the 45-year-old journalist created a farce when she held up a protest placard during an evening news programme.
She was, however, sentenced for a separate protests she made outside Kremlin in July 2022.
“The court sentenced Ovsyannikova to eight years and six months’ imprisonment, to be served in a general regime penal colony,” the Moscow prosecutor’s office says.
Last year, Ovsyannikova fled Russia with her 11-year-old daughter for an unspecified European country after escaping from house arrest.
‘Charges are absurd’
Before her sentencing, Ovsyannikova on Tuesday, October 3 said that charges against her are absurd and politically motivated.
“They decided to flog me for not being afraid and for calling things by their names.
“Of course, I do not admit my guilt. And I do not deny any of my words. I made a very hard, but the only right moral choice in my life, and I have already paid a high enough price for it,” she said in a statement.
