Journalist Muzhdabaiev thanks Russian "Reich" for sentencing him to six years in prison in absentia

In Russia, the Second Western District Military Court sentenced in absentia Aider Muzhdabaiev, one of the heads of the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR, to six years in prison for "calls for terrorism".

Source: TASS, a Kremlin-aligned Russian news outlet, citing the court; Muzhdabaiev on X, formerly known as Twitter

Quote from TASS: "The court found Muzhdabaiev guilty under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls for terrorist activity, public justification of terrorism or public statements in favour of terrorism) and sentenced him to six years in prison in absentia with serving the sentence in a general regime penal colony and deprivation of the right to administer websites for a period of four years."

Details: Earlier, the Russian Interior Ministry had put the journalist on a federal wanted list.

The reason for his criminal prosecution in Russia was his post on Facebook from 2018.

The journalist himself, who has been living and working in Ukraine since 2015, reacted with irony to this news on his microblog on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

Quote from Muzhdabaiev: "Sad news from the Reich... I am upset. They didn't give me enough. I was counting on at least eight years for my Russophobic crimes... But it was still a military court. So I will respond to this with military crimes. Reich, thank you for your trust!"

Background: In May 2020, journalist Aider Muzhdabaiev, deputy general director of the ATR TV channel, said that he had been officially recognised as a terrorist in Russia.

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