Alsu Kurmasheva was arrested last year while travelling to Russia for a family emergency. (File)
A Russian court has sentenced US-Russian journalist Alsu Alsu Kurmasheva to more than six years in prison for violating military censorship laws, a court spokesperson said Monday, a ruling her employer slammed as a “mockery of justice”.
Alsu Kurmasheva, 47, was convicted on Friday — the same day a separate Russian court sentenced US journalist Evan Gershkovich for 16 years on espionage charges, also rejected as baseless — but the details were not made public until Monday.
“On Friday, Alsu Kurmasheva was sentenced. Six years, six months,” Natalya Loseva, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court of Tatarstan, told AFP.
The court’s website states only that she had been found guilty in a hearing on Friday, with no details of the sentence.
Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) outlet in Prague, was arrested last year while travelling to Russia for a family emergency.
She had her passports confiscated for not declaring her dual citizenship, was then arrested for not registering as a “foreign agent” and while in pre-trial detention was hit with the more serious “false information” charge.
The sentencing was slammed by RFE/RL.
“This secret trial and conviction make a mockery of justice,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus told AFP in an emailed statement.
“The only just outcome is for Alsu Kurmasheva to be immediately released from prison by her Russian captors. It’s beyond time for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her loving family.”
Russia often holds trials behind closed doors, but issuing a verdict and sentencing in such a manner is extremely unorthodox.
Gershkovich was also convicted in a fast-track trial after spending more than a year in prison.
The speed of the process raised hopes among allies that Washington and Moscow could be close to agreeing a prisoner exchange, as the Kremlin has previously said it will only enter such a deal after a conviction.
Washington and Moscow have both said negotiations for Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, are ongoing, though the fate of Alsu Kurmasheva, as a dual US-Russian citizen, has been less clear.
Her employer and family have been pushing for her release.
Alsu Kurmasheva edited a 2022 book titled “Saying No to War”, which is a collection of interviews and stories from Russians opposed to the military campaign against Ukraine ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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