Colombian citizen sentenced to five years in prison for sending SMS with ‘fakes’ about Russian army

A Moscow district court has sentenced Colombian citizen Alberto Enrique Giraldo Saray to five years and two months in a penal colony for spreading “fakes” about the Russian army, writes Mediazona.

The Colombian citizen was arrested in April 2022. According to investigators, in March 2022, he placed six mobile phones in a Moscow shopping center, which were used to send out SMS messages en masse with “knowingly false messages” about the Russian army’s actions in Ukraine.

“In particular, [the messages] reported that the Russian military was killing civilians in Ukraine, as well as replenishing the number of troops with those from the reserves, conscripts, foreign fighters, and students,” reported Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office.

The prosecution insisted that the Colombian national was acting “in the interest of the US organization Digital Humanity, which is connected to the United States Agency for International Development.”

Giraldo Saray has lived in Russia for 20 years.