More than a year after the death of Alexei Navalny, Russian justice accelerates his work as a undermining against those who, directly or indirectly, defended him. Pursued for “extremism” with three other journalists, Antonina Favorskaya, 35, was sentenced by a court in Moscow on Tuesday, April 15, at 5 and a half in a prison colony with general regime. For Sotavision, a site specializing in political trials, this journalist had covered the multiple judicial audiences of the most famous of anti-Kremlin opponents, mysteriously dead in prison on February 16, 2024.
One last time, during a trial on the eve of her death, Antonina Favorskaya had filmed Alexei Navalny compared by video link from her Arctic prison. Then she had followed her mother who had resisted the strong pressures of the authorities to accept a discreet burial, out of the sight of the public. Arrested on March 17, a few hours after having laid flowers on the grave of the opponent finally buried in a large cemetery in Moscow, the journalist then wrote from her prison that she was accused of having “Helped to organize the funeral of Alexei Navalny: only those who are very afraid and think only of revenge can reach such surrealism”.
No details of these legal proceedings could be published because the whole trial took place in camera. Officially, according to investigators, Antonina Kravtsova (Favorskaya of her pen name) was involved in the ” Collection of documents, production and editing of videos and publications for FBK [l’organisation qualifiée d’« extrémiste » d’Alexeï Navalny] ». Three other journalists – Artiom Krieger, also from Sotavision, as well as Konstantin Gabov and Sergei Kareline, freelancers who worked respectively for Reuters And Associated Press – were similarly prosecuted. Tried at the same time as Antonina Favorskaya, they were also sentenced to 5 and a half years in a prison colony with general regime.
You have 65.72% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
Source: Lemonde