2024-04-22 11:36:00
Moscow. April 22. INTERFAX.RU – The Second Military Court of the Western District of Moscow sentenced in absentia six years in prison in a general regime colony to the press secretary of the Meta company (included in the register of extremist organizations, activities in the Russian Federation are banned), American citizen Andy Stone, accused of justifying terrorism, reported an Interfax correspondent.
Judge Roman Kiforenko announced the corresponding verdict.
Stone’s sentence should be calculated from the moment of his detention in the territory of the Russian Federation or extradition to Russia.
The American was found guilty of justifying terrorism (part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The court also banned Stone from administering Internet resources for four years.
Consideration of the case continued during two court hearings.
During the arguments between the parties, the prosecution asked the court to appoint Stone seven years in a maximum security colony without additional punishment. The defense insisted on an acquittal due to the lack of corpus delicti in Stone’s actions.
As previously reported to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, in March 2022, Meta’s press secretary published a post on his Twitter page (currently X – IF) that “justified aggressive, hostile and violent actions once morest military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation take part in the special military operation.
The investigation also accuses the American of “public calls to commit acts of terrorism aimed at causing the death of soldiers”. However, the prosecutor asked the court to exclude this from the charge.
In Russia Pierre announcement on the international wanted list and arrested in absentia. Additionally, Rosfinmonitoring added him to the list of people and organizations for which there is information regarding their involvement in extremist or terrorist activities.
On March 21, 2022, the Tver Court satisfied the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation to prohibit the activities of Meta Platforms Inc. on the territory of Russia regarding the sale of products – social networks Facebook and Instagram – for extremist activity.
At the same time, the court decision does not apply to the activities of the WhatsApp messenger, also owned by Meta, since it does not publicly distribute information.
Currently, access to Facebook and Instagram in the Russian Federation is limited.
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