A Russian court jailed a journalist and former volunteer for Alexey Navalny for 12 years on Tuesday under laws that ban cooperation with the opposition activist’s organisations -- even if it happened in the past.
Olga Komleva, 46, volunteered for the party run by Navalny -- who died last year -- before it was banned as “extremist” in 2021, according to independent media outlet Mediazona.
She was also found guilty of criticising the Russian army as she covered Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and anti-government protests for independent outlet RusNews.
The Kremlin has escalated its decade-long clampdown on independent media, imposing sweeping censorship laws that effectively ban criticism of the military.
A district court in the central Russian city of Ufa “found that the defendant participated in the activities of an extremist community” and “spread deliberately false information about the actions of the armed forces”, it said in a statement.
“The court found the defendant guilty and sentenced her to 12 years in prison,” it added.
The journalist did not admit guilt on either charge.
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders described her imprisonment as a “symbol of the Kremlin’s repression of independent voices”.
“She must be released,” it said in a statement.
Komleva was seen smiling and waving from inside a glass defendants’ box after she heard the verdict, and said “I love you all” to a group of people who came to support her, according to a video published by RusNews.
Komleva has diabetes and struggled to receive medication while in pre-trial detention, Mediazona said.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s main opponent who died in an Arctic penal colony under unclear circumstances, was declared an “extremist” by Russian authorities in 2021.
Russia banned Navalny’s organisations in the same fashion shortly before launching its 2022 Ukraine assault and has ruthlessly targeted those it deems to have links to him.