Journalist Maria Ponomarenko sentenced to 6 years in the case of fakes about a special operation

The Leninsky District Court of Barnaul sentenced Russian journalist of the RusNews portal Maria Ponomarenko to 6 years in prison in the case of spreading a fake about the shelling of a drama theater in Mariupol by Russian soldiers, transmits “Kommersant”.

In addition, the court banned Ponomarenko from engaging in journalistic activities for five years. Initially, the state prosecution requested 9 years in prison for her. The maximum punishment under Part 2 of Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for reasons of political hatred), under which Ponomarenko is accused, amounts to imprisonment for up to 10 years.

Ponomarenko was arrested at the end of April. By information Petersburg courts, on March 17, 2022, she published a post on her Telegram channel in which she claimed that the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) had attacked the drama theater in Mariupol. At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense had already refuted this information by that time.

On March 16, 2022, there was an explosion in the building of the Mariupol Drama Theatre. The Ukrainian side blamed the Russian military for the incident. On the same day, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported about their innocence in what happened and accused Ukrainian nationalists from the Azov unit (recognized as an extremist organization in the Russian Federation and banned). According to the department, the Azov militants staged a “bloody provocation” and blew up the theater building, which was mined by them in advance. The Ministry of Defense also noted that Russian aviation did not perform any tasks within the boundaries of Mariupol on March 16.