St. Petersburg Prosecutors Request 6-Year Prison Sentence for Anti-War Teenager – The Moscow Times
Prosecutors in St. Petersburg are seeking a six-year prison sentence for 19-year-old anti-war activist Daria Kozyreva on charges of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian military, the independent news outlet Mediazona reported Friday.
Kozyreva was arrested in February 2024 after she attached a poem by Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko to his monument in St. Petersburg.
Law enforcement authorities brought a second charge against Kozyreva in August, citing her in interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) following her expulsion from St. Petersburg State University.
Kozyreva denied the charges in court on Friday.
“My opinion is that the army discredited itself after the full-scale invasion, so any statement against it will discredit nothing,” she was quoted as saying by Mediazona.
Kozyreva was released from pre-trial detention in February under restrictions barring her from leaving home at night, using the internet or speaking to the press until Dec. 2.
In 2023, she was fined 30,000 rubles ($365) for an anti-war social media post and expelled from university.
The year before, Kozyreva was arrested for writing “Murderers, you bombed it to rubble. Judases” on a public installation symbolizing the “brotherhood” between St. Petersburg and Mariupol — an occupied Ukrainian city that was largely destroyed in a Russian seige.
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