A Moscow court has overturned performance artist Pyotr Verzilov’s conviction for spreading false information about the Russian military on a technicality, Net Freedoms Project reported on Monday.
Verzilov, a member of the Russian activist group Pussy Riot who until last year was also a publisher of independent news outlet Mediazona, was sentenced in absentia to 8.5 years in prison in November for two tweets and two Instagram posts he made about alleged Russian atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha in 2022.
The prosecution had requested a 9-year prison sentence and a 4-year ban on Verzilov publishing content online. Investigators claimed the posts contained a message “capable of causing an unjustified increase in social tension and harming the interests of the Russian Federation”.
Mediazona said security forces believed Verzilov “created a real risk of people forming the wrong opinion about the goals and objectives of the special military operation”.
Verzilov left Russia in 2020 after his home, and the homes of those close to him, were searched. He was declared a “foreign agent” in 2021. In October, Verzilov left Mediazona after revealing that he had joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
