Jailed Moscow politician and war critic Alexei Gorinov was on Friday sentenced to three more years in prison for “justifying terrorism” in private conversations with inmates at a prison hospital.
Alexei Gorinov, a former Moscow councilor, was already serving a seven-year prison sentence as the first known Russian to be jailed under wartime censorship laws that criminalize anti-war protests.
Gorinov went on trial again this week on accusations based on testimony from fellow prisoners that he had justified Ukrainian attacks on the Crimean Bridge and the actions of Ukrainian military units banned as “terrorists” in Russia.
Gorinov denied the charges and accused the witnesses of provoking him into discussing the Russian invasion of Ukraine while secretly recording their conversations.
A military court in the city of Vladimir found Gorinov, 63, guilty of “justifying terrorism” and handed him a three-year prison sentence, according to the independent news website Mediazona.
Gorinov’s lawyer explained that her client would end up spending eight years in prison under the combined sentences of “spreading war fakes” and “justifying terrorism.”
Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Gorinov to three years and six months in prison.
“I’m for peace, and you love war,” Mediazona quoted Gorinov as saying to the judge from the defendant’s cage after the verdict.
In July 2022, Gorinov was sentenced to seven years in jail after chiding colleagues at a council meeting for planning a children's drawing competition while the invasion of Ukraine was underway.
He was found guilty of "knowingly spreading false information about the actions of the Russian army," becoming the first person to be sentenced for this new offense.
The human rights group Memorial has classed Gorinov as a political prisoner.
With concerns over his state of health, his supporters hoped he would be freed in a major prisoner swap in August this year.
AFP contributed reporting.
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