Prominent Buryatia activist who was arrested for ‘striking’ policemen with ballpoint pen sentenced to nearly three years in prison

A court in Ulan-Ude has sentenced 61-year-old activist Natalia Filonova to two years and 10 months in prison on charges that she attacked police, the outlet People of Baikal reported on Thursday.

Filonova was arrested in September 2022 at an anti-mobilization protest in Ulan-Ude. A judge later declared her guilty of attacking four officers while they were transporting her to court.

The officers who accused Filonova did not attend her sentencing hearing. Earlier, they said that she beat them, scratched them, hit one of them in the face with a pen, and broke one of their fingers.

Natalia Filonova, one of Buryatia’s most prominent opposition figures, previously covered protests as a journalist. After her arrest, her adopted son was sent to an orphanage in a village about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Ulan-Ude. He has reported being harassed and beaten by other children there at the direction of the facility’s director.