Russian journalist Marina Ovsiannikova, famous for criticizing Ukraine’s offensive on live television, was placed under house arrest on Thursday in a criminal case that could send her to jail, a Moscow court has heard.
“The Basmanny District Court granted the investigators’ request to issue a restraining measure in the form of house arrest…until October 9,” the court said in a statement.
He faces up to 10 years in prison.
Marina Ovsiannikova is accused of having “discredited” the army during a solitary protest action in mid-July, when she erected a banner near the Kremlin accusing Russian forces of committing abuses in Ukraine.
Under a new penal code article adopted after the start of the conflict to deter criticism, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
During Thursday’s hearing, Marina Ovsiannikova held up a banner that read: “May the children who died (during the conflict in Ukraine) haunt you in your dreams.” The 44-year-old journalist was arrested at her home on Wednesday.
Since the end of July, Marina Ovsiannikova has already been sentenced twice to fines for having “discredited” the Russian army, in particular on the basis of messages published on social networks criticizing the offensive in Ukraine.
A striking intervention on Russian television
Marina Ovsiannikova rose to fame in mid-March after appearing, in full newspaper, on the set of a pro-Kremlin television channel for which she worked. During her intervention, she carried a poster denouncing the offensive in Ukraine and the “propaganda” of the media controlled by power.
The images of his gesture went around the world. Many people praised his bravery, in a context of repression of any critical voice in Russia. However, he is not unanimous within the Russian opposition, some still reproach him for the years he spent working for the Pervy Kanal channel, the spokesman for the Kremlin.
After working abroad for several months, notably for the German newspaper die Welt, he announced in early July that he had returned to Russia to resolve a custody dispute over his two children.
Russian authorities are tracking any voice denouncing the offensive in Ukraine. Several opponents have been arrested or have fled the country, independent media have been closed and major foreign social networks have been blocked.
Source: BFM TV
