A court in Far East Russia’s Zabaikalsky region sentenced journalist Nika Novak to four years in prison for collaborating with a foreign organization, Russian media reported Tuesday.
Novak, the former editor-in-chief of the regional news outlet Zab.ru, was arrested in Moscow in December 2023 and transferred around 4,700 kilometers (2,900 miles) east to Chita, the capital of the Zabaikalsky region, for a closed-door trial that began in October.
On Monday, Novak wrote on her Telegram channel that she was barred from contacting her mother in Chita, who is listed as a witness in the case.
The Zabaikalsky Region Court found Novak guilty of “confidential collaboration” with an unspecified foreign organization, according to the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Besides working as editor-in-chief at Zab.ru, Novak has also worked as a freelance correspondent for RFE/RL, the outlet said.
Novak is among fewer than 10 individuals prosecuted under Russia’s 2022 law criminalizing collaboration with foreign entities, news reports said. The human rights organization Memorial has recognized Novak as a political prisoner.
Memorial noted Novak’s conflicting views on Russia’s war in Ukraine. While she had expressed support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine since 2014 and welcomed Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, she also lamented in March 2022 that “peaceful Ukrainians are falling asleep and waking up to the sound of shelling.”
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Novak was accused of working with a foreign state. She was accused of working with a foreign media organization.
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