In Khakassia, the magazine “New Focus” was liquidated, the editor-in-chief of which was sent to a colony for 5.5 years in the case of military “fakes”

The Abakan City Court upheld the claim of Roskomnadzor and liquidated the Khakass publication New Focus, whose editor-in-chief was sent to a colony in early September in a case of military “fakes.” This is reported by the local publication 19rusinfo.ru .

According to the claim card on the court’s website, the registration authority demanded that the registration of the media outlet be declared invalid. According to Article 16 of the Federal Law “On the Mass Media,” Roskomnazdor has the right to file such a claim, including if the editor-in-chief was sentenced to a real prison term.

According to 19rusinfo.ru , violations recorded by security forces were also the reason for the liquidation of the publication. We are talking about a fine of 450 thousand rubles, which was imposed on New Focus in December last year. Then the court found the founder of the magazine guilty of inciting hatred or enmity due to materials published in 2018-2021.

The reason was five texts that talked about the case of HSE student Yegor Zhukov , who after the 2019 protests was sentenced to four years probation because of videos on YouTube, as well as about police officers who did not investigate the murder of a family in Artemovsk. According to the FSB, the publications create “intolerant attitudes” towards security forces and “offend their public morality.”

In April 2022, a case was opened against the editor-in-chief of the publication, Mikhail Afanasyev, for distributing “fake stories” about the Russian military (clause “a” of part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). The reason was an article by New Focus about 11 Russian National Guard soldiers who were fired for refusing to fight in Ukraine.

Despite the fact that the information from the publication about the dismissal was later confirmed by the security forces interrogated in court, and the journalist’s defense insisted that he wrote not about the military, but about the National Guard, he was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. The prosecutor demanded that Afanasyev be sentenced to six years in prison.