22:54, 16 December 2023

Sochi activist sentenced for discrediting Russian Army

Marina Melikhova. Photo https://24krasnodar.ru/news/main/20325

A court in the city of Adler has sentenced Marina Melikhova to 1.5 years in penal colony, treating the videos she had published in social networks as discrediting Russian militaries. This was reported by the human rights project "OVD-Info"* with reference to Maria Spasibukhova, an advocate.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 4, it became known that the court had extended the arrest of the activist Marina Melikhova, accused in a criminal case of discrediting the Russian Army, by three months.

On June 21, 2023, in Sochi, law enforcers detained Melikhova in a criminal case for discrediting the Russian Army, after which the court placed her into custody. In 2022, Melikhova was fined several times under the administrative article on discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.

The reason for prosecuting her was in her two posts placed in the "VKontakte" social network about the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine. Melikhova associates her criminal prosecution with the pacifist video clips that she had posted in social networks.

Marina Melikhova is a supporter of the "USSR Citizens"**. She was earlier convicted of public calls for extremist activities and served more than two years in custody; she was back at large in the summer of 2022.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

**In 2019, the Supreme Court of the Komi Republic recognized the "Union of Rus' Slavic Forces" (one of the group of movements that also includes "USSR Citizens") as an extremist organization.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 15, 2023 at 08:56 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot