Refinitiv Newscasts - Kremlin critic jailed over Ukraine war 'fake news'
09/12/2022 18:44
Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_qac67r4u&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2022:newsml_RW569909122022RP1_K15&pageId=RefinitivNewscasts Source: Thomson Reuters Description: A Moscow court has jailed a critic for "fake news" over his criticisms of the Russian military and the Ukraine war. It handed down eight and a half years, a harsher sentence than Ilya Yashin's lawyer expected. Lucy Fielder has more. Short Link: https://refini.tv/3iL1H6x Video Transcript: >> Russian opposition politician Ilia Yushin was jailed for 8.5 years on Friday on charges of spreading false information about the army. He was tried by a Moscow court over a YouTube video released in April, in which he discussed evidence uncovered by Western journalists of Russian atrocities in Bucha near Kiev. He casts doubt on the Kremlin line that such reports were fabricated as a provocation against Russia. After listening with a defiance smile to the verdict, he says, don't worry, it will all end soon. Moscow has intensified its clamp down on public dissent since invading Ukraine in February. Most prominent opposition figures are in jail or exile. Days after the invasion, legislation was passed providing for jail terms of up to 15 years for disseminating false information about the military. Yushin's lawyer Maria Acemon so they appeal the sentence which was longer than expected. >> The prosecutors haven't proven that the information he conveyed was a lie, or that it was deliberately wrongful, or that his motivation, as they say, was political hatreds. >> Posting on Telegram, Yushin urged his supporters to keep opposing the war in Ukraine. "We have no reason to be sad," he wrote. You and I have one this trial, friends. Yushin rose to prominence during a wave of anti-communist protests in 2011 to '12. Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny slumped the verdict as shameless and lawless in a post on his Twitter account, which is managed by his team in exile. "Russia will be free and so will you," he wrote to his friend and ally. Yulia Petrova was amongst supporters who chanted freedom outside the court. >> What can I say? We all should be promised that this regime will end before Ilia Yushin completes the sentence, much earlier or our country will not last. Yushin was elected head of a Moscow District Council in 2017 and has been blocked from standing for higher office. President Vladimir Putin asked about the case at a news conference, said it was unacceptable to question a court decision