A court in Barnaul sentenced RusNews journalist Maria Ponomarenko to six years in prison. According to RusNews, she was also banned from journalism for a period of five years.
Ponomarenko was found guilty of spreading "fake news" about the Russian army because of a Telegram post in which she spoke about the shelling and destruction of a theater in Mariupol. The prosecutor requested nine years in prison for her.
Ponomarenko was detained in April in St. Petersburg, where she had moved shortly before. The woman was brought to Barnaul, at the place of registration, and put in a pre-trial detention center, and then transferred to a psychiatric hospital. There, according to the journalist, she was pumped with unknown drugs.
In November, Ponomarenko was placed under house arrest, and she had to live in the same apartment with her ex-husband. In January, she left home, quarreling with him, and she was again sent to the pre-trial detention center.