Moscow court sentenced journalists Antonina Krawcowa (pseudonim Faworskaya), Konstantin Gabowa, Sergei Karelin and Artem Kriger for extremism. They were sentenced to 5 and a half years in prison.
Journalists were accused of belonging to an "extremistic organization" for which the government recognized the Anti-corruption Foundation (FBK), founded by Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, who died under unclear circumstances in a penal colony in the Arctic in February 2024.
Konstantin Gabow and Sergei Karelin had previously worked for the Moscow office of Deutsche Welle.
All 4 journalists denied the allegations, claiming that they were not working for the foundation, but simply reporting its actions.
The trial of journalists took place behind closed doors and is part of the repression of dissidents, which reached an unprecedented scale after Moscow attacked Ukraine in February 2022.
DW condemns judgment
Peter Limbourg, president of Deutsche Welle, said that Russia "reveals with all its power that it is simply a state that disregards the regulation of law."
– The Russian government is doing everything in its power to distort the facts, treating courageous journalists as hardened criminals. all day that Antonina Faworskaya, Konstantin Gabow, Sergei Karelin and Artem Kriger spend behind bars is 1 day besides many. They and their families have our full solidarity," Limbourg added.
Journalists were detained in the spring and summertime of 2024. They've been in custody always since.
Journalists on Inhuman Conditions
In letters Gabow and Karelin described the terrible conditions in the Moscow prison Matrosskaj Tiszyna, where they were transferred in early October last year. "I feel like I'm being held in a basement somewhere. A tiny window somewhere on the top," Gabow wrote. ‘The goal is overflowing. I sleep on the level with a guy. He's been surviving like this for a month. During the day we sit on the bench (no backrest), due to the fact that there is no room. The mattress, the blanket and the pillow are worn out and it turns out they have bugs. The atmosphere here is overwhelming," he added.
Karelin, on the another hand, wrote that in Matrosska Tishina he was placed in a crowded cell with 4 bunks for 8 people. "Not on a bunk where the surface is consecutive and hard, but on a prison field bed with 'down' in the middle," he added.
During this time Karelin's lawyer, Katerina Tertukhina, described these conditions as torture. She stressed that under specified conditions her client could not full prepare for the trial.
Prior to the transportation of the judgment, Krieger said that he simply did his occupation as a “honest, imprudent and independent journalist”, and the trial judged as “pure madness”. “Now they are trying to introduce me as an extremist, a criminal, individual who should be shut down,” he said.
Journalists at hazard in Russia
In the planet Press Freedom Index ranking, reporters without Borders ranked Russia 162nd out of 180 countries, noting that media freedom in this country “does not truly exist”.
For Vladimir Putin's presidency, at least 37 journalists were murdered for their work.
4 February 2022. Russia banned the publication of DW, forced the broadcaster to close his Moscow office and blocked the dw.com service in all languages in the Russian Internet. The Russian editorial board continues to operate in Riga, Latvia.
