Russia: Pussy Riot band activist sentenced in absentia over Bucha claims
Pyotr Verzilov
Pyotr Verzilov,an activist linked to the punkband and art collective Pussy Riot, has been sentenced to eight-and-half years in prison by a Russian court on Friday (Nov 3).Verzilov was sentenced "in absentia" for breaching Russia's strict censorship laws for posts related to its invasion of Ukraine.
The 36-year-old has not been living in Russia since 2020. The Russian court said Verzilov's social media posts alleging Russian atrocities in Bucha, a city in Ukraine, was "false information". According to a law Russia introduced in the initial days of its invasion of Ukraine, this is a criminal offence.
Russia has cracked down on dissent over years and has sent many high-profile critics of President Vladimir Putin to jail. This has not stopped after the Ukraine war.
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Verzilov has reportedly told the Russian media at the beginning of the conflict that he travelled to Ukraine to make a documentary, but is now fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.
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The case in which Verzilov has been sentenced is based on his videos on social media in which dead civilians were seen lined up in body bags in Bucha. Verzilov compared Russian soldiers to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
When Ukrainian forces retook the city last March after a month-long occupation by Russian forces, they found more than 450 bodies.
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Bucha is a city on the outskirts of Kyiv. In December last year, the United Nations said that at least 73 civilians in the city were killed by Russian troops. The UN added that 57 among them were "summarily executed". The agency is still investigating more than 100 more alleged killings by Russian troops.Ukraine and the G7 countries have called Russian action a "massacre".
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Russia has denied these accusations repeatedly and has claimed that images of the dead citizens were "staged."
Pyotr Verzilov is a member of Pussy Riot, which is a Russian Protest Punk band and also an art collective.
The group gained fame and even notoriety when three members were arrested when they staged a protest in an Orthodox Church in Moscow. Hooliganism charges were slapped against them.
(With inputs from agencies)