Prosecutor Seeks Nine Years For Putin Critic In Trial Held In Absentia.

Russian journalist Aleksandr Nevzorov (file photo)

The prosecutor at a high-profile trial in absentia of one of Russia's best-known TV journalists, Aleksandr Nevzorov, has asked a court in Moscow to sentence the outspoken Kremlin critic to nine years in prison on a charge of discrediting the armed forces involved in the ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The prosecutor also asked the Basmanny district court on January 31 to bar Nevzorov from posting anything on the Internet for four years.
The Investigative Committee launched a probe into Nevzorov in March last year over statements he made on Instagram and YouTube that criticized the armed forces for a deadly assault on a nursing home in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and the alleged torturing and killing of civilians in the town of Bucha. In May, a court in Moscow ordered that Nevzorov be detained for two months should he return to Russia. Nevzorov's property in the northwestern Leningrad region was impounded in what the Basmanny district court said was a move to secure compensation for any possible fines Nevzorov will be ordered to pay if convicted. Nevzorov is currently on a tour across Canada with lectures about Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine. He permanently resides in one of the European Union member-states. In June last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree granting Ukrainian citizenship to Nevzorov and his wife Lidia "for transcendent services" to Ukraine. In the days after launching his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, President Vladimir Putin signed into law legislation that calls for lengthy prison terms for distributing "deliberately false information" about Russian military operations as the Kremlin seeks to control the narrative about its war in Ukraine. The law envisages sentences of up to 10 years in prison for individuals convicted of an offense, while the penalty for the distribution of "deliberately false information" about the Russian military that leads to "serious consequences" is 15 years in prison. It also makes it illegal "to make calls against the use of Russian troops to protect the interests of Russia" or "for discrediting such use" with a possible penalty of up to three years in prison. The same provision applies to calls for sanctions against Russia. Nevzorov, who continues to sharply criticize Putin and his government over the Moscow-launched war in Ukraine on his YouTube channel , has rejected the charges saying he has a right to express his own opinion.