A Russian court has sentenced US-Russian journalist Alsou Alsou Kurmasheva to more than six years in prison for violating military censorship laws, a court spokesman said on Monday, a decision condemned by her employer as a “mockery of justice”.
Alsou Kurmasheva, 47, was convicted on Friday — the same day a separate Russian court sentenced American journalist Ivan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison on espionage charges that were also dismissed as unfounded — but details were not made public until Monday.
“Alsu Kurmasheva was sentenced on Friday. Six years, six months,” Tatarstan Supreme Court spokeswoman Natalya Loseva told AFP.
The court website only stated that he was found guilty in a hearing on Friday, and no details of the sentence were given.
Alsou Kurmasheva, editor of the Prague-based U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was arrested last year while traveling to Russia for a family emergency.
His passport was confiscated for failing to declare his dual citizenship, he was then arrested for failing to register as a “foreign agent” and charged with a more serious charge of “giving false information” while in pre-trial detention.
R.F.E./R.L. condemned the sentence.
“This secret trial and conviction is a mockery of justice,” RFE/RL president and CEO Stephane Capus told AFP in an emailed statement.
“The only fair outcome is for Alsou Kurmasheva to be immediately released from prison by her Russian abductors. It is time for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her beloved family.”
Trials in Russia are often conducted behind closed doors, but delivering a verdict and sentence in this manner is highly unconventional.
Gershkovitch was also convicted in a fast-track trial after spending more than a year in prison.
The speed of the process has raised hopes among allies that Washington and Moscow could move closer to agreeing on a prisoner swap, after the Kremlin previously said it would enter into such a deal only after a conviction.
Both Washington and Moscow have said negotiations are ongoing for Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovitch, while the fate of Alsou Kurmasheva, a dual US-Russian citizen, is not as clear.
His employers and family are pressing for his release.
Alsou Kurmasheva edited the book “Saying No to War” in 2022, a collection of interviews and stories from Russians who opposed the military operation against Ukraine ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
