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Posted: 2022-07-28 23:54:39

Former Russian TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has been fined 50,000 roubles ($1,155) after being found guilty of discrediting the country's armed forces in social media posts condemning Russia's actions in Ukraine.  

The ruling was passed after a short hearing in a Moscow administrative court, during which the judge said the evidence confirmed Ovsyannikova's guilt and there was "no reason to doubt its authenticity".

Ovsyannikova, who rejected the proceedings against her as "absurd", gained international attention in March after bursting into a studio of Russian state TV, her then employer, to denounce the Ukraine war during a live news bulletin.

At the time she was fined 30,000 roubles for flouting protest laws.

Thursday's hearing was related to subsequent social media posts in which she wrote that those responsible for Russia's actions in Ukraine would find themselves in the dock before an international tribunal.

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The protest was shown live on Russian government broadcaster TV Channel One.(Courtesy: TV Channel One)

Russia passed a law against "discrediting" the armed forces, with a sentence of up to 15 years, in early March, soon after President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a "special military operation" against Ukraine.

In court, Ovsyannikova repeated her protest and said she would not retract her words. She said she did not understand why she was there and what she was being judged for.

"What's going on here is absurd," she said. "War is horror, blood and shame."

"Your accusations are like accusing me of spreading monkeypox," she continued.

"The purpose of the trial is to intimidate all the people who oppose the war in the Russian Federation."

She described Russia as an aggressor country, saying: "The beginning of this war is the biggest crime of our government."

A lawyer for Ovsyannikova said she had the right to speak out under article 29 of the Russian constitution which protects the right to freedom of expression, but the judge dismissed the lawyer's arguments.

Reuters

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