Court finds journalist Prokopyeva guilty of justifying terrorism, fines her 500,000 rubles
PSKOV. July 6 (Interfax) - The Second Western District Military Court ruled at a hearing in Pskov on Monday to find journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva guilty of justifying terrorism and fined her 500,000 rubles, an Interfax correspondent reported from the courthouse.
The judge ruled to find Prokopyeva "guilty under Russian Criminal Code Article 205.2, Part 2, and impose a fine of 500,000 rubles on her."
Prokopyeva said she will appeal her sentence. "I wasn't counting on being found not guilty. We'll appeal," Prokopyeva told reporters, responding to a question as to whether she is pleased with the sentence.
Dozens of people, including Lev Shlosberg, leader of the Yabloko party branch for the Pskov region, gathered on Monday near the Pskov Regional Court building, where the court handed down its judgement in the case against Prokopyeva.
After the sentence was read, some in the audience uttered cries denouncing the court and saying that the work of a journalist cannot be equated with terrorism.
Prokopyeva was charged with public justification of terrorism and its propaganda for a report aired on the Ekho Moskvy radio station in Pskov in November 2018. The report was later published on the website of the local Pskov Newsfeed affiliated with the radio station. Prokopyeva spoke on the causes behind the blast at a building of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in Arkhangelsk on October 31, 2018, when Mikhail Zhlobitsky, 17, set off an improvised explosive device inside the building, killing himself and injuring three FSB employees.
The prosecution was seeking a six-year prison term at a medium-security penal colony and a four-year ban on working as a journalist for Prokopyeva.
Ekho Moskvy Editor-in-Chief Alexei Venediktov told Interfax earlier that the criminal case against Prokopyeva was politically biased. He wanted to seek her acquittal.
The Russian Union of Journalists was hoping for Prokopyeva's acquittal, saying that it did not think that her words justified terrorism, Russian Union of Journalists Chairman Vladimir Solovyov told Interfax earlier.
Moscow and Pskov saw pickets in support of Prokopyeva on Friday.