Ukrainian film producer Rodnianskyi convicted in Russia for "fakes" about Russian army

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow sentenced Ukrainian producer Oleksandr Rodnianskyi to eight years and six months in prison in absentia for four anti-war publications; he was also "banned from writing on the Internet for four years".

Source: Russian independent media outlet Mediazona

Details: Rodniansky was found guilty in a case of spreading military "fakes" for reasons of political hatred. The trial was held in absentia. The state prosecution requested a 9.5-year prison sentence for the producer.

In the debate, defence lawyer Iryna Nikulina asked to acquit her client: "My client is a completely unusual person. The world's eyes are riveted on his activities. Nowadays, we live in such times that the best people and minds end up in court. People with the right views, with sober thoughts."

Nikulina also noted that no one informed Rodnianskyi about the criminal case and did not try to find out his relation to the case, although the investigator knew that a lawyer had been assigned to the case. The investigator responded to the defence's motions by attempting to replace her with a public defender.

Rodnianskyi asked his lawyer not to provide the court with characterisation materials about "how good he is" as he did not consider it the proper method of defence.

The Russian investigation took as a basis Rodnianskyi's Instagram posts of 11 March 2022 about the Russian attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, on 16 March 2022, about the killings of civilians by the Russian military in Ukraine, as well as a post about the Russian army's attacks on civilian targets in Kyiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, which Rodnianskyi wrote on 10 October 2023, and reposted on his Telegram channel.

For reference: Oleksandr Rodniansky is a Ukrainian citizen born in Kyiv who worked in the Russian Federation. The producer has repeatedly spoken out against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. At the end of October 2022, the Russian Ministry of Justice declared him a "foreign agent". In mid-May 2023, a court in Moscow arrested the producer in absentia; before that, nothing was known about the case against him.

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