The Kirovsky District Court of St. Petersburg sentenced Olga Smirnova, an activist of the Peaceful Resistance, to 6 years in a penal colony. This is reported by «Network Freedom».
Smirnova was found guilty of spreading «fakes» about the army motivated by political hatred (clause «e» of part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). During the debate, the prosecutor asked to appoint her seven years in prison.
The activist refused to admit guilt in the case, emphasizing separately that her actions were not mediated by the motive of political hatred. Speaking with the last word, Smirnova said that «Russia will not be happy.» “A country that has caused Ukraine so much pain, so many deaths, so many irretrievable losses cannot be happy,” the activist added. posted in the spring of 2022 on VKontakte. In particular, the publications talked about the destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure during the war, the fighting in Mariupol and the shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, as well as the anti-war actions of the Peaceful Resistance.
In May 2022, Smirnova was placed in a pre-trial detention center until As a result, she and four other members of the «Peaceful Resistance» in St. Petersburg were searched. Earlier, the interests of the activist were represented in court by local human rights activist Dinar Idrisov, but in February 2023 he was removed from the case — the court called a conflict of interest as a formal reason, since two witnesses in the case — Asan Mumdzhi and Vlad Shipitsyn — have powers of attorney for Idrisov. As the human rights activist himself emphasized, these powers of attorney do not give him the opportunity to represent Mumji and Shipitsyn in the Smirnova case.