Khodorkovsky was sentenced in absentia in Russia to 10 years in prison for anti-war posts
The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow sentenced Russian opposition politician and civil society activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky in absentia to 10 years in a general-regime penal colony.
Russian authorities found him guilty of allegedly publicly disseminating “knowingly false information” about the Russian Armed Forces.
In addition to the prison term, the Kremlin-controlled court banned the politician from administering any internet resources or websites for five years.
The Russian prosecutor’s office had sought a much harsher sentence for the opposition figure, requesting 14 years in prison during the trial.
Russian investigative authorities opened a criminal case against the opposition figure back in January 2024.
According to the judge’s ruling, the sentence will begin upon Khodorkovsky’s possible arrest or extradition to Russia, although the politician himself has been living abroad for over 12 years.
The basis for the prosecution and harsh sentence was material that the opposition figure published on his social media pages and video-sharing platforms.
Russian prosecutors charged him with two specific instances of exposing crimes committed by the Russian regime, which he carried out while outside the territory of the Russian Federation.
The first basis for the case was a post on social media platform X, published in September 2022.
In it, Khodorkovsky published a photograph of an official letter from Russian Deputy Finance Minister Irina Okladnikova to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko.
This document stated that as of mid-August 2022, more than 48,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the war against Ukraine, which completely contradicted the official reports of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The second piece of evidence for the prosecution was a video that appeared on the politician’s personal YouTube channel in July 2024.
In this detailed video, Mikhail Khodorkovsky openly told the international community about the brutal Russian missile strike on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv.
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