Alerts | Arrest/detention/charges

Russia sentences Ukrainian journalist to prison in absentia for 2022 call to “kill Russians”

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On 26 July 2024, a court in Moscow sentenced Ukrainian journalist Fakhrudin Sharafmal to seven years in prison in absentia on charges of “inciting hatred”, “justifying Nazism”, and “calls for extremism”, Russian independent outlet MediaZona reported. Sharafmal was found guilty for an interview he gave to Ukrainian TV channel Channel 24 on March 15, 2022. In the interview, the journalist publicly called on Ukrainians to “massively kill […] citizens of the Russian Federation, including children,”according to a fragment of the interview quoted by Russian investigators. Russian independent outlet MediaZona recalled that Sharafmal apologized for his words on the day after the interview was published, explaining that what he had said was “unacceptable from the point of view of a journalist and from the point of view of a human”.

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