A Moscow court has sentenced journalist Michael Nacke and the founder of the investigative project Conflict Intelligence Team, Ruslan Leviev, to 11 years in prison in absentia for spreading “false” information about the Russian army, Telegram news channel Sota reported Tuesday morning.
The “fakes” in question refer to several joint live streams in March 2022 during which Leviev and Nacke spoke about civilian casualties in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and the threat posed by the war to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant.
The court found them guilty of “spreading false information about the military” involving the “fabrication of evidence”, which it ruled the pair had done due to “vested interest”. The court also banned the two men from posting anything on the internet for five years.
Both Leviev and Nacke currently reside outside of Russia.