Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko was sentenced to six years in prison in February after she was found guilty by the Leninsky District Court of the Siberian city of Barnaul of spreading false news about military forces after an Instagram post accused civilians of the bombing of Mariupol had denounced theater was attacked in prison and transferred to a psychiatric hospital. This was denounced by the organization Ovd-Info, which supports people persecuted for political reasons in Russia. The transmission took place on the 17th of this month.
Ponomarenko, 45, who worked for news site RusNews, was arrested in April last year, a month after the controversial post was published. In November, two months after she reported that her physical and mental condition had deteriorated as a result of her detention, she was placed under house arrest. But she was then transferred back to prison.
“How is it possible that I am a victim of military censorship when there is no war going on, just a special military operation?” he said in his closing statement at the trial.