A court in Moscow sentenced a Colombian accused of sending SMS messages with “fake news” about the army to more than 5 years in prison.

The Golovinsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Colombian Alberto Enrique Giraldo Saray to 5 years and 2 months in a general regime colony in the case of distributing military “fakes” via SMS. Mediazona was informed about this by the press service of the court.

The Colombian was found guilty of spreading “fakes” about the army for mercenary reasons by an organized group (points “b”, “d” of Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). In addition to the actual sentence, he was also banned from administering Internet resources for three years.

The court hearings in his case were held behind closed doors. During the trial and investigation, the foreigner was placed in a pre-trial detention center. According to the publication BFM.RU , during the debate, the prosecution asked Giraldo for six years in prison.

The Colombian was arrested in April 2022. According to investigators, from March 9 to March 18, he placed six mobile phones in a shopping center in the Voikovsky district, from which SMS messages with “deliberately false messages” about the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine were “massively” sent .

“In particular, it was reported that Russian military personnel committed murders of the civilian population of Ukraine, as well as the replenishment of the regular number of troops with reservists, conscripts, foreign fighters and schoolchildren,” the Prosecutor General’s Office specified . Security officials believed that Giraldo's actions were directed from abroad.

Two people were also put on the wanted list in the case: Ramirez Salazar and Briceño Mendoza. According to the department, Mendoza “received instructions from unidentified persons” and coordinated Giraldo’s work.

Updated at 4:45 p.m. Added information about the ban on the administration of Internet resources and about requesting a sentence at the debate stage.