Moscow judge shaves month from seven-year sentence of first Russian to be imprisoned for ‘disinformation’
At an appeal hearing on Monday, the Moscow City Court reduced municipal deputy Alexey Gorinov’s seven-year prison sentence by one month. Gorinov was found guilty of spreading “false information” about the Russian army on July 8 after he called Russia’s war against Ukraine a war at a municipal council meeting. The verdict made him the first person to be sent to prison by a Russian court for spreading” disinformation” about the military.
Gorinov’s lawyers requested that the judge suspend criminal proceedings and refer the case to the Russian Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality of the “disinformation” law. Instead, the court removed the phrase “preliminary conspiracy” from Gorinov’s charges and reduced his sentence to six years and 11 months.
In his closing statement, Gorinov said the following:
I want to admit my guilt. Guilt before the much-suffering people of Ukraine. Before the entire global community. My guilt that I, as a citizen of my country, was unable to do anything, unable to prevent this ongoing insanity in any way.