Russian journalist found guilty of 'inciting terrorism'
July 6, 2020
The freelance contributor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty had been accused of "publicly inciting terrorism." Prokopyeva, who says she was doing her job, was placed on a list of "terrorists and extremists."
Image: DW/T. Felgengauer
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A Russian court on Monday found journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva guilty of justifying terrorism.
Prokopyeva had reported a story about a young man who detonated a bomb inside a government building and faced up to seven years in prison on terrorism-related charges.
The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist used a radio program in 2018 to discuss the case of a 17-year-old who blew himself up at the office of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, in the Russian city of Arkhangelsk.
She denied the charge and said she had been put on trial for doing her job.
The court fined Prokopyeva 500,000 roubles (€6,160, $6,952). The journalist's supporters who were present in the courtroom shouted "shame" and "she is not guility" as the judge read out the verdict.
Prokopyeva, who arrived at the court wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan "We will not shut up", said she would appeal the decision.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to jail Prokopyeva for six years and ban her from working in journalism for four years on the charges that carry a maximum sentence of seven years.
Dozens of human rights defenders signed a statement published by the Memorial rights group denouncing the case as "openly political" with the goal of "intimidating Russian journalists".
"A journalist is entitled to freely spread information not only on events but also on ideas," the statement read.
Ahead of the sentencing, international press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders urged the Russian authorities to throw out the case saying it set a "dangerous precedent."
Human Rights Watch's Damekya Aitkhozhina — who described the terrorism charge as "bogus" — said Prokopyeva's fine was "another devastating blow to media freedom in Russia."
Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance
We take a look back at Russian punk provocateurs Pussy Riot and their remarkable defiance of political persecution and nationalist ideology in Russia.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
Starting a riot
All-girl Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot created an international storm in 2012 with a guerrilla performance in Moscow's main cathedral that called for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a new term as Russia's president a few days later. The protest attracted worldwide attention, and three members of the group were arrested.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
State censorship
During the ensuing court hearing in Moscow in August 2012, Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova (right), Maria Alyokhina (center) and Yekaterina Samutsevich (left) could be seen in a glass-walled cage. Support for the Pussy Riot activists came from all over the world.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
Cause celebre
Pussy Riot's iconic colorful balaclava face masks allowed supporters near and far to become "members of the band." Here, a protester is arrested during a demonstration in support of Pussy Riot in 2012 in front of the Russian consulate in New York on the day a Russian judge found three members of the provocative punk band guilty of hooliganism.
Image: AP
No way out
Pussy Riot band member Nadya Tolokonnikova looks out from a holding cell during a court hearing in April 2013. Tolokonnikova was appealing her conviction for "hooliganism motivated by religious hate," for which she was serving two years in a remote prison. Many international stars such as Madonna called for the Pussy Riot members' release.
Image: Reuters
Back under attack
After their release from prison under an amnesty in late 2013, Pussy Riot were soon protesting again, this time at the Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi. While they were preparing to sing the song "Putin Will Teach You to Love Your Motherland," a spoof on state nationalism, a Cossack militiaman who was armed with a whip attacked band member Nadya Tolokonnikova and a photographer.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Fight the power
Masked Pussy Rot members leave a police station in Adler during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in February 2014. Two members of the band, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, were detained after they were wrongfully suspected of stealing a handbag from their hotel.
Image: Reuters
Getting the word out
By 2015, Moscow-based Maria Alyokhina (left) and Nadya Tolokonnikova increasingly traveled Europe to continue campaigning against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here they answer questions from the audience at the 23rd Sziget (Island) Festival on Shipyard Island in Budapest, Hungary, on August 14, 2015.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Mohai
Part of Banksy's world
Here, in September 2015, Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina performed at the closing party of the "Dismaland" project by graffiti artist Banksy. The street artist described his subversive, pop-up exhibition at the derelict seafront Tropicana lido in the UK as a "bemusement park."
Image: Getty Images/J.Dyson
How to start a revolution
Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova wrote her own guide to individual freedom in the face of totalitarianism, "How to Start a Revolution," which was published in 2016. She soon toured the book around the world, stopping in Berlin and at the Lit.Cologne literary festival (above).
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Vennenbernd
Provoking the corrupt security state
In 2016, Pussy Riot were again indulging in political provocation at home, releasing a film clip to their new protest song "Chaika" that mocks corrupt and violent Russian security agencies – under whom the jailed band members faced "endless humiliations" – after it was revealed that the country's chief prosecutor, Yuri Chaika, had links to the local mafia.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/D.Sinyakov
Trump meets Putin
Pussy Riot's criticism not only targets Russian authorities: At this performance in a San Francisco theater in February, a caricature of Donald Trump accompanied Vladimir Putin on stage. During the event, they discussed the current state of human rights in Russia, and how LGBT individuals and political activists in prison are affected.
Image: Getty Images/T.Mosenfelder
The struggle continues
On August 6, 2017, Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Olga Borisova held flares and a banner on a bridge near a prison in Yakutsk, Russia to protest the jailing of film director Oleg Sentsov. He was arrested in Crimea – which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 – and convicted by a Russian military court of conspiracy to commit terror attacks. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Zona.media
Live in Germany
In September 2017, the group performed their "feminist punk manifesto" in Germany at Frankfurt's Künstlerhaus Mousonturm. Titled "Riot Days," the concert is based on band member Maria Alyokhina's eponymous book that describes her co-founding of Pussy Riot in 2011 with Nadya Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B.Roessler
Shutting down Trump Tower
In October 2017, the group stormed Trump Tower in New York City to voice opposition to Putin and Trump and the incarceration of political prisoners. Wearing their famous balaclavas, they held up a banner once again urging the release of Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov. Police closed the 58-story skyscraper for a half hour.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Szenes
Protest on the pitch
Dressed as police officers, members of the collective invaded the pitch during the World Cup final in Russia, interrupting the game. According to the group, the goals of the protest were for the Russian authorities to free all political prisoners, stop illegal arrests at public rallies and allow political competition in the country. The members were sentenced to 15 days of jail time.
Image: Reuters/D. Staples
A suspected poisoning
One of the Pussy Riot activists at the FIFA World Cup protest was Pyotr Verzilov, who is also a publisher at MediaZona, an online news site that focuses on human rights violations in Russia's penal system. In September 2018, the dissident experienced symptoms of poisoning. He was sent to Berlin for treatment and was placed under police protection. He recovered.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Cinema for Peace Foundation
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The rights group last month described the case as a "violation of freedom of expression" that sent a "chilling message".
Last week, Prokopyeva's employer said she had done the opposite of what prosecutors had alleged.
"Svetlana's commentary was an effort to explain a tragedy," RFE/RL acting president Daisy Sindelar said in a statement.
"The portrayal of her words as 'promoting terrorism' is a deliberate and politically motivated distortion aimed at silencing her critical voice, and recalls the worst show trials of one of Russia's darkest periods."
