LONDON, Sept 17 (Askume) – Siberian journalist Maria Ponomarenko has declared a hunger strike after she was sentenced to six years in prison for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, according to her publications and supporters.
The 46-year-old was detained less than two months after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 on allegations that the Russian air force bombed a theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Last February, a court in his hometown of Barnaul in western SiberiaHe was found guilty of spreading misinformation about the Russian military .
More than 20,000 people have been arrested across Russia for speaking out against the war, according to human rights monitoring group OVD-Info. While most detainees are fined and promptly released, independent journalists are treated more harshly by the courts.
A total of four Rusnews journalists were jailed, including Ponomarenko. The vast majority of independent media are now in exile.
A reporter for one of Russia’s last remaining independent print newspapers said on Tuesday he would suspend publication, days after he was added to the Russian Justice Ministry’s list of “foreign agents.” Sobesednik (The Interlocutor) came under fire from authorities earlier this year when it published a two-page ad dedicated to the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
According to Russian news reports, Ponomarenko is facing new criminal charges for allegedly attacking guards at his prison.
Former Moscow city councillor Yulia Galyamina said prison authorities had falsified an investigation report against Ponomarenko, leading him to declare a hunger strike at a court hearing on Monday, after which he was placed in a separate cell.
“Martha’s condition is very bad,” Galyamina told Askume by telephone on the sidelines of a court hearing in Barnaul.
“She cried a lot (in court) because she was helpless. She even wanted to commit suicide.”
Rusnews said Ponomarenko had declared a hunger strike but declined further comment to Askume.
Ponomarenko said at a hearing last month that she would slit her wrists to protest conditions in pretrial detention centers, RIA Novosti reports.
Russia’s prison service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Kommersant newspaper said last year that Ponomarenko had been diagnosed with “hysterical personality disorder” and had slit her wrists while in custody. Reports quoted her lawyer as saying she suffered from claustrophobia and broke a window.
Galyamina, who exchanged letters with Ponomarenko, was given a two-year suspended sentence four years ago for organising anti-Kremlin protests. She was subsequently declared a “foreign agent” and can no longer work in politics.
