Prosecution requests 9-year sentence for opposition politician Ilya Yashin, charged with Bucha ‘fake’

The state prosecutor has petitioned the court to sentence the opposition politician Ilya Yashin to nine years in prison, on charges of spreading “fakes” about the Russian army. The Criminal Code article on spreading army “fakes” provides up to 10 years as punishment for disinformation.

Yashin was charged under the new Russian law against military “fakes” after broadcasting a livestream about civilian killings in Bucha. According to the defendant himself, he took pains to present different positions on the events in Bucha, including the official Russian position. The prosecution says that Yashin was motivated by “political hatred” in spreading “fakes,” in spite of knowing about Russia’s “peace and security measures.”

Yashin’s prosecutor also demands that the politician should be barred from using the Internet for four years after his release from the penal colony.

• Ilya Yashin has been in jail since late July. He insists that he is innocent. Before arrest, he was one of the few remaining opposition figures speaking openly against the war in Ukraine while inside Russia.
• In July, the Moscow municipal deputy Alexey Gorinov was sentenced to seven years in the penal colony, on the same charges. His “crime” was that, while speaking at the Krasnoselsky district deputies’ meeting, Gorinov called for ending the war and getting the Russian army out of Ukraine.