© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Artist Alexandra (Sasha) Skochilenko, who’s charged with spreading false details about Russia’s armed forces by way of changing grocery store worth tags with slogans protesting in opposition to the nation’s army marketing campaign in Ukraine, is escor
By Andrew Osborn
(Reuters) – A Russian artist who changed grocery store worth tags with messages calling for an finish to Moscow’s warfare in Ukraine is anticipated to study her destiny in court docket on Thursday with a state prosecutor asking for her to be jailed for eight years.
Critics say the case of Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, is a part of a crackdown on anybody who speaks out in opposition to Russia’s “special military operation” that has led to almost 20,000 detentions and over 800 legal circumstances.
After it despatched troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 final 12 months, Russia tightened its legal guidelines on dissent to attempt to silence critics Moscow regards as unacceptably divisive when the nation is locked in what President Vladimir Putin has portrayed as an existential battle with the West.
Skochilenko, an artist and musician often called Sasha to her buddies, has admitted changing worth tags in a grocery store in her native St Petersburg on March 31 2022 with small items of paper urging an finish to the warfare and criticising the authorities.
However Skochilenko, who has already spent over a year-and-a half in jail, denies the formal cost of knowingly spreading false details about the Russian military.
A state prosecutor has requested the presiding decide to offer her an eight-year jail time period and ban her from utilizing the Web for 3 years for what he had known as a severe crime dedicated out of hatred for Russia.
Her attorneys have instructed the court docket their consumer had solely acted on her conscience, had dedicated no crime, and wouldn’t survive jail due to pre-existing well being issues.
Skochilenko is because of make a ultimate assertion on Thursday to a court docket in St Petersburg which is anticipated to ship a verdict on the identical day.
Amnesty Worldwide has declared Skochilenko “a prisoner of conscience” – somebody who’s imprisoned solely due to who they’re or what they imagine.
Considered one of her attorneys, Yana Nepovinnova, instructed the court docket on Monday that her consumer must be acquitted.
“You should never punish people for thinking and feeling differently. You should never punish people for objective criticism of the authorities and their decisions,” she stated.
