Jailed Russian anti-war journalist, reportedly ‘on verge of suicide,’ sentenced to additional one year and 10 months
A court in Russia’s Altai region has sentenced journalist Maria Ponomarenko to one year and 10 months for allegedly assaulting prison staff, according to RusNews, the outlet where she previously worked.
Ponomarenko was already serving a six-year sentence for spreading “disinformation” about the Russian military over a post about Russia’s bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theater in Ukraine. With both convictions combined, she has three years left to serve, RusNews reports.
She has gone on multiple hunger strikes to protest her prison conditions. Earlier this month, the human rights group OVD-Info reported that she was “on the verge of suicide” and had cut her veins. Her lawyer said she told him she had been forced to do so “because of constant harassment by the prison administration.”
