A new case has been opened against journalist Maria Ponomarenko, convicted of war fakes.

A new criminal case was opened against RusNews journalist Maria Ponomarenko, convicted of telling fake news about the Russian army, under Part 2 of Art. 321 of the Criminal Code (infliction of harm not dangerous to health to an employee of a place of deprivation of liberty). About it RusNews Ms. Ponomarenko’s friend reported with reference to the convict’s letter.

The journalist writes that male employees were recognized as victims and that she did not attack any of them. She also claims that since her transfer from the Krasnoyarsk colony to IK-6 in the village of Shipunovo, Altai Territory, almost no one has received letters from her, although she wrote them, the publication reports.

“In fact, I was lucky, for 321 it is unlikely that they will add more than a year or two, and the term does not matter, we will be released with other prisoners of conscience at the same time and soon enough,” says Mrs. Ponomarenko’s letter.

On February 15, Maria Ponomarenko was sentenced to six years in a general regime colony on charges of distributing fakes about the Russian army (clause “d”, part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The reason for the trial was a post by a journalist on Instagram (belonging to the extremist Meta, banned in Russia) about the shelling of a drama theater in Mariupol.

Maria Ponomarenko said that she was diagnosed with hysterical personality disorder. For about two months she was kept in a pretrial detention cell with the windows taped shut, which she considered “torture conditions” due to her claustrophobia. In September 2022, she opened her veins due to worsening conditions. On March 24, she stated that in pre-trial detention center No. 2 of Biysk, she was beaten by doctors from the psychiatric team.

Erdni Kagaltynov