The verdict has been passed against the artist and peace activist Alexandra Skotschilenko in Saint Petersburg. She is sentenced to seven years in a prison camp for spreading alleged false information in a grocery store.
Russian anti-war activist and artist Alexandra Skotschilenko has been sentenced to seven years in a prison camp by a court in her hometown of Saint Petersburg.
The 33-year-old, who replaced price tags in a grocery store with slogans against Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, had to answer for spreading alleged false information about Moscow’s army.
In custody since April 2022
The musician and poet was arrested after the action in April 2022 and has been in custody ever since. She always denied the allegations.
Her case caused international outrage because she remained imprisoned despite serious illnesses. The public prosecutor’s office had requested eight years in prison, with a maximum threat of ten years in prison.
“I embody everything that is unbearable for Putin’s regime”
Sochilenko has been classified as a political prisoner by the human rights organizations Amnesty International and Memorial. Her partner in particular had repeatedly drawn attention to the fate of the politically persecuted artist.
In one of her letters, Skochilenko wrote from prison: “As it turns out, I embody everything that is intolerable for Putin’s regime: creativity, pacifism, LGBT, psychological enlightenment, feminism, humanism and love for everything bright, ambiguous and unusual.”