{"id":26660,"date":"2021-02-04T15:59:40","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T15:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=158558"},"modified":"2021-02-04T15:59:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T15:59:40","slug":"prosecutor-seeks-five-year-prison-term-for-russian-activist-shevchenko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/04\/prosecutor-seeks-five-year-prison-term-for-russian-activist-shevchenko\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor Seeks Five-Year Prison Term For Russian Activist Shevchenko"},"content":{"rendered":"
The prosecutor in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don has asked a court to sentence Anastasia Shevchenko, an activist with the Open Russia opposition group, to five years in prison for her involvement in the activities of an “undesirable organization.”<\/p>\n
Shevchenko’s lawyer, Sergei Badamshin, said on Telegram<\/a><\/strong> that the prosecutor made the request during the trial on February 4.<\/p>\n The “undesirable organization” law, adopted in May 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations who received funding from foreign sources.<\/p>\n The Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office declared Open Russia “undesirable\u201d in 2017.<\/p>\n In 2019, Human Rights Watch said those who support the group had come under “increasing pressure” from the authorities.<\/p>\n Shevchenko, who has been under house arrest since January 2019, is the first Russian charged with “repeated participation in the activities of an undesirable organization.”<\/p>\n Previously, violations of this law were punished under administrative law. If convicted, Shevchenko could face up to six years in prison.<\/p>\n After she was initially arrested in January 2019, Shevchenko was allowed at the last minute to see her eldest daughter in the hospital shortly before she died<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n