Lucy Shtein, member of the Russian group Pussy Riot and former deputy mayor of Moscow, was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison by a Russian court, the press service of the court announced on Wednesday, according to the Reuters agency.
The activist was found guilty of spreading “false information about the war (in Ukraine)” after she posted a message on the social network X (formerly Twitter) in March 2022 accusing Russian soldiers captured by Ukraine of ” they bombed foreign cities and killed people,” according to the independent Russian publication Mediazona.
According to the Moscow court, Lucy Shtein, who was deputy mayor of Moscow until 2022, will start serving her sentence as soon as she is extradited to Russia.
Lucy Shtein and her partner Maria Aliohina, a member of the band Pussy Riot, left Russia weeks after the invasion of Ukraine while under house arrest.
They settled in Iceland, where they received citizenship in 2023, according to local media.
Nearly 20,000 people have been arrested in Russia since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022 for expressing views hostile to the war, according to human rights group OVD-Info.
People found guilty of spreading “false information” about the Russian military face up to 10 years in prison.
