A Russian court sentenced a blogger to five years in jail on Tuesday after convicting him of inciting violence against the children of police officers, and charged two Kremlin critics with organizing an illegal protest.FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition figure Lyubov Sobol delivers a speech during a rally to demand authorities allow opposition candidates to run in the upcoming local election and release protesters, who were detained during recent demonstrations, in Moscow, Russia August 31, 2019. REUTERS/Maria Tsvetkova
The court action follows a summer of opposition protests demanding free elections to Moscow’s city legislature on Sept. 8, the biggest sustained protest movement in the Russian capital since 2011-2013.
Protesters have demanded that a slew of opposition-minded candidates be allowed to take part in the election, something the authorities have refused citing a lack of necessary signatures in their support. The opposition contests this.
The authorities have allowed some opposition protests, but declined to sanction others. Police have briefly detained more than 2,000 people at various rallies since mid July, opened criminal cases into a dozen people over mass unrest and handed down short jail terms to scores of activists.
Up to 60,000 people attended an authorized protest on Aug. 10 in Moscow, which a monitoring group called the country’s biggest political protest for eight years. But an unauthorized protest last weekend attracted only a few thousand.
On Tuesday, a Moscow court found blogger Vladislav Sinitsa guilty of extremism after he wrote a Twitter post on July 31 that suggested that police officers who used violence against protesters might find their children targeted.
At least one police officer told the court he interpreted the tweet as a threat against his own family.
Sinitsa was sentenced to five years in jail. He denied the tweet amounted to incitement to violence and said he would appeal.
Prominent Kremlin critic Lyubov Sobol and journalist Ilya Azar said on Tuesday they had been charged with organizing last weekend’s protest, an event the authorities regarded as illegal.
Both were briefly detained by police and then freed late on Monday. They face fines of up 300,000 rubles ($4,545) or 30 days in jail if found guilty.
“I’m not scared, I don’t plan to give in,” Sobol wrote on Facebook after her release, saying police had detained her as she walked out of a shop.
Azar said police had detained him after he stepped out of his flat to have a cigarette after putting his small child to bed. He said police had left the door to his flat unlocked and his young daughter on her own there after arresting him.
Courts in Moscow were due to hear criminal cases later on Tuesday against several other opposition activists. They are charged with using violence against police officers at protests, charges the opposition have said are disproportionate.
($1 = 65.9950 rubles)
Additional reporting by Polina Devitt and Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Frances Kerry
MOSCOW (Reuters) –
