(ANSA-AFP) - MOSCOW, DEC 9 - A Russian court found opposition
figure Ilya Yashin guilty on Friday of spreading "false
information" about Russia's military intervention in Ukraine,
the highest-profile conviction under new legislation
criminalising criticism of the campaign. The 39-year-old Moscow
councillor is just the latest in a long line of Kremlin critics
to have been sidelined in recent years, a crackdown that
intensified after the conflict began in February. Wearing a
white sweatshirt and handcuffed, Yashin smiled and waved to his
family during the session, an AFP journalist reported from the
court. Judge Oksana Goryunova said Yashin had committed a crime
by disseminating "knowingly false information about Russia's
Armed Forces". In April, he had described the alleged murder of
civilians in Bucha as a "massacre", referring to a town near the
capital Kyiv where civilians were found killed after Russian
forces pulled back. (ANSA-AFP).
© Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved