A Russian court has again extended the detention of a Russian-American journalist living in the Czech Republic

The court session was held behind closed doors and journalists were not allowed into the courtroom until the decision was announced. In the published video, Kurmaševová was in a space separated by glass. The journalist’s lawyers requested that the client be transferred to house arrest, but the court refused.

Kurmasheva is accused by the Russian judiciary of spreading false news about the Russian army because of her book No War, which, according to the Meduza portal, was published in November last year and presents the stories of 40 Russians speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to an earlier RFE/RL report, the journalist faces up to ten years in prison for spreading false news about the Russian army.

Another accusation relates to the fact that the journalist did not report herself to the Russian authorities as a so-called foreign agent. The BBC previously pointed out that breaching the obligation to report to the authorities as a foreign agent has been a criminal offense in Russia for almost three years. The Russian authorities use the term foreign agent for entities that, in their opinion, are under foreign influence.

In March, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called for Kurmaševová’s release during a debate on the floor of the UN Security Council.

At the UN, Lipavský called on Russia to free the journalist Kurmasheva

Europe