Nadezhda Buyanova in court. Photo: OVD-Info
A Russian court has sentenced a paediatrician accused of criticising the war in Ukraine during a private appointment with a patient and his mother to five years and six months in prison.
Nadezhda Buyanova was reported to the police by Anastasia Akinshina, the ex-wife of a soldier who was killed in Ukraine, for allegedly blaming Russia for the war and labelling her ex-husband a “legitimate target” for Ukrainian forces.
Buyanova was arrested in February and placed in pretrial detention two months later by the authorities after she allegedly violated the conditions of her bail.
The 68-year-old, who was born in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, was found guilty of spreading “false information” about the Russian army under military censorship laws that have been used to silence dissent.
Last year at least 21,000 people were targeted by Russia’s repressive laws against anti-war activists, according to Amnesty International.
Buyanova’s lawyers argued that the prosecution had failed to provide any evidence that the conversation took place, while also pointing to the absence of any audio or video recording of the appointment.
During an initial court hearing in April, Akinshina said her son was not present in the room for the conversation, yet in another hearing over the summer the seven-year-old boy testified against the doctor, alleging that she had said that “Russia is an aggressor country, and Russia kills peaceful people in Ukraine”.
Buyanova’s lawyer Oscar Cherdzhiev had argued that the child could not pronounce or understand such phrases as “aggressor country”, “legitimate target” or “special military operation” and as such his testimony should not have been considered admissible evidence, independent news outlet Mediazona said on Friday.
