After about 10 months of imprisonment and pressure to extract confessions, A Russian court issued A Russian-American journalist who was on a quick visit to her hometown was sentenced to prison last year, the latest in a string of Russian sentences against American citizens that some see as politically motivated.
According to the website of the Supreme Court of Tatarstan, Alsou Kurmasheva, who works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was convicted of “spreading false information” about the Russian military and sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison in a case classified as secret, with no details available about the nature of the charges against her.
The 47-year-old editor was sentenced in the city of Kazan on Friday, the same day a court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Ivan Gershkovich of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison in a case the United States has called politically motivated.
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A wave of international condemnation of the Russian judiciary’s decision to sentence American journalist Ivan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison on charges of “espionage.”
Last October, Radio Free Europe announced on Wednesday that Kormasheva had been arrested in the city of Kazan, where Russian authorities had charged her with failing to declare herself as a “foreign agent.”
Following the verdict, RFE/RL President Steven Kappus denounced Kormasheva’s trial and conviction as a “mockery of justice.”
“It is time for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her loving family,” Capos said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Who is she? and what happened?
Alsou Kurmasheva had not visited Russia since 1998, and when she decided to, she went there in May 2023 on what was supposed to be a very short trip, no more than two weeks, but she was then banned from leaving Russia.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement that she had been living in the Czech capital, Prague, and entered Russia on May 20, 2023, due to urgent family circumstances.
Kormasheva, a mother of two who lives in Prague, went with her family to Kazan, her hometown, to visit her elderly mother, thinking she would be safe.
On June 2, 2023, while she was at Kazan International Airport, preparing for her return flight, she was stopped 15 minutes before boarding the plane, according to Radio Free Europe, which operates its Tatar-language service.
At that time, she was accused of not registering her American passport in Russia, so she was returned to her mother’s home and fined about $100.
Kormasheva was waiting for her passports to be returned before she was charged in September with failing to declare herself as a “foreign agent.”
On October 18, a group of masked men stormed the house and arrested her. She was handcuffed and then transferred to a police station for interrogation and trial.
Karamasheva: American Muslim journalist in Russian prison on charges of “collaboration”
Teaser Description
Alsu Karamasheva, a Russian-American Muslim journalist, is in prison in Russia on charges of “foreign agent.”
She was later also charged with spreading “false information” about the Russian military under legislation that criminalizes any public expression about the war in Ukraine that deviates from the Kremlin line.
During her time at Radio Free Europe as a Tatar-language editor, Kormasheva reported on language, ethnicity, civil society and minority rights.
Kurmasheva, a Muslim, hails from Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, part of the Russian Federation, which is home to about 50 percent Tatars of Turkish origin.
Since last October, the journalist has been held in a cold, poorly lit and overcrowded cell in the Russian city of Kazan, about 800 kilometres east of Moscow.
The American journalist was exposed To pressure her to make confessions.
In a previous interview with Alhurra last April, her husband, Pavel Butorin, said: “We are now in a very difficult situation. My children have been without their mother for almost a year, including more than six months while she has been behind bars on charges that are difficult for me and my children to understand. Even for her investigators and judges in Kazan, because they have no choice but to carry out Moscow’s orders.”
“She was arrested by Russian security services, literally 15 minutes before she was supposed to board the plane that was supposed to return her to her family,” he added.
Butorin told Alhurra, “Regardless of the official charges against her, we know that she is behind bars only because of her work at the Free Europe Foundation and because of her American citizenship.”
“If I could talk to Alsou I would tell her how much we miss her,” the husband said, looking moved.
“In fact, these words do not fully describe the daily pain that my daughters and I live. Every day we see that empty chair at the dinner table. We do not hear her voice. We miss her very much,” he continued.
“I would also like to tell her that I want her to know that we have campaigned worldwide for her release, and that we will see her sooner or later. She will be back with her family. Unlike her captors, she will hold her head high and be confident in her innocence and her convictions,” he added.
Children Missing Their Mothers and Fathers… From Washington, a Solidarity Call for Detained Journalists
United by one cause, to reaffirm once again that “journalism is not a crime,” colleagues, friends and families gathered in Washington, DC, to support and keep alive hope for the release of journalists detained in a number of countries on what are described as “unjust” charges.
In February, Moscow banned Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, declaring it an undesirable organization.
The speedy and secret trials of Kurmasheva and Gershkovich have raised speculation about a possible prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
Arrests of Americans in Russia are increasing, as President Vladimir Putin seeks to round up American prisoners to exchange for Russian prisoners, according to Western observers and media.
Brutal KGB Tactics Return to Life in Putin’s Russia
About an hour’s drive from Dresden is Bautzen, which was home to a notorious facility in the last century, a prison named after the city itself.
Russia detained American basketball player Brittney Griner before releasing her in exchange for Washington’s release of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.
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