Russian court finds Russian-American journalist guilty of spreading false information

(AP) – A court has convicted Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist with the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty outlet, of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced her to six and a half years in prison after a secret trial, officials said Monday, showing court documents.

The conviction in Kazan, the capital of the central Russian region of Tatarstan, came on Friday, the same day a court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison in a case the United States has said was politically motivated.

Kurmasheva, a 47-year-old editor for RFE/RL’s Tatar-language service, was found guilty of “spreading false information” about the military, according to the Tatarstan Supreme Court website. Court spokeswoman Natalya Loseva confirmed Kurmasheva’s conviction and revealed the sentence to The Associated Press by telephone in the case that was classified as secret.

“My daughters and I know that Alsou has done nothing wrong. And the world knows it too. We need her to come home,” Kurmasheva’s husband, Pavel Butorin, said in an X post on Monday.

He had said last year that the charges came after the Tatar-language service published a book called “No to War” in 2022 — “a collection of short stories about Russians who do not want their country to be at war with Ukraine.”

Asked about the case, RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus lashed out at Kurmasheva’s trial and conviction, calling it “a mockery of justice.”

“The only just outcome is for Alsu to be immediately released from prison by her Russian captors. It is time for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her beloved family,” Capus said in a statement to the AP.

Kurmasheva, who has US and Russian citizenship and lives in Prague with her husband and two daughters, was arrested in October 2023 and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent while gathering intelligence on the Russian military.