Alerts | Arrest/detention under fake news laws

Russian journalist sentenced to prison in absentia for “fake news” on the Russian army

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On 1 February 2023, a court in Moscow sentenced Russian journalist Alexander Nevzorov to eight years of prison in absentia on charges of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army, Russian independent media reported. The prosecutor in Nevzorov’s case had asked the court for a nine-year sentence.

The decision came after a criminal case was opened against the journalist in March 2022. On 6 May of the same year, a court in Moscow arrested Nevzorov in absentia (the journalist no longer lives in the country). The case was opened for social media publications from March 2022, in which Nevzorov wrote on Russia’s shelling of a maternity ward in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.  Russian investigators said the publication was based on news published by Ukrainian media, and claimed those reports contained incorrect information accusing Russia of the shelling.

UPDATE: On 12 April 2024, the Russian Investigative Committee additionally opened a criminal investigation into Nevzorov on grounds of repeatedly violating Russian legislation on “foreign agents”. Nevzorov was designated as a “foreign agent” soon after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

UPDATE: On 21 May 2024, a local prosecutor’s office in St. Petersburg filed a complaint in court with the demand to designate Nevzorov and his wife as an “extremist society”, lawyer Alexey Pryanishnikov reported. The aim of the request would be to facilitate the confiscation of Nevzorov’s property in Russia, in a move which Pryanishnikov claimed could now be used against all those “who think differently”. On 2 July 2024, a court in St. Petersburg approved the request to designate Alexander Nevzorov and his wife Lidia as an “extremist society”, which paved the way for the confiscation of their property in Russia.

UPDATE: On 21 August 2024, prosecutors in St. Petersburg requested the confiscation of a plot of land and of a house on this land belonging to Nevzorov. The journalist’s mother-in-law lives in the house in question, MediaZona reported. On 12 November 2024, Russian independent media reported that a court in St. Petersburg had placed a legal arrest on the house. It was not known if Nevzorov’s mother-in-law, who reportedly has no other real estate to live in, was forced to leave the house as a result. On 17 February 2025, a court in St. Petersburg confirmed the confiscation of the real estate.

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