Dozhd journalist handed 8-year term over ‘fake news’

PanARMENIAN.Net - A Moscow district court has sentenced Dozhd TV journalist Yekaterina Kotrikadze in absentia to eight years in prison on charges of spreading “false information” about the Russian army.

The Golovinsky District Court of Moscow convicted Dozhd television journalist Yekaterina Kotrikadze in absentia, imposing an eight-year prison term in a case concerning alleged dissemination of “fake news” about the Russian military.

The state prosecutor had requested a nine-year sentence.

The criminal case was initiated, in particular, over Kotrikadze’s April 4, 2022 posts on her Telegram channel, in which she wrote about the killings of civilians in Bucha and called for collecting evidence of “war crimes” committed by Russia in Ukraine, Echo Kavkaza reports.

The prosecution was also based on her statements regarding victims of a missile strike on Odesa, including a three-month-old girl named Kira and her mother, as well as her citation on Dozhd’s broadcast of remarks by Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth.

Law enforcement authorities classified these publications as “criminal acts” allegedly committed out of motives of “political and national hatred.”

In addition to the “fake news” charge, another criminal case has been opened against Kotrikadze in Russia for failing to comply with requirements imposed on “foreign agents.” In October, a court ordered her arrest in absentia and placed her on the wanted list.

Another Dozhd journalist, Denis Kataev, was also sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court on February 13 to one year and four months in prison for failing to fulfill the duties of a “foreign agent.”

National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan had previously given an interview to Kotrikadze, a segment of which concerning clergy sparked a wave of criticism.