(Moscow) A Russian, separated from his 13-year-old daughter who was placed because of a drawing at school against the offensive in Ukraine, was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison and fled, have announced the authorities.
This case has aroused great indignation for several weeks in Russia, becoming one of the symbols of the merciless repression against those who oppose the military operation launched more than a year ago by the Kremlin in Ukraine.
But it took a new turn on Tuesday when the court in Efremov, 300 km south of Moscow, announced that the defendant Alexei Moskaliov, placed under house arrest since March, had vanished.
“The verdict was read out in the absence of the defendant, as he disappeared and did not show up for the hearing,” said the court’s communications officer, Elena Mikhailovskaya.
Shortly before, the court found Mr. Moskaliov, 54, guilty of having “discredited” the Russian armed forces, sentencing him to two years in prison, the sentence requested the day before by the prosecutor.
He had been under house arrest since March 1.
According to an official from the court’s press service, “he fled last night,” Olga Diatchouk simply told reporters, according to a video relayed by several Russian media.
Asked by AFP, his lawyer, Vladimir Bilienko, said he last saw him on Monday.
The NGO Memorial denounced in a press release “the repression” against Mr. Moskaliov and his daughter, seeing it as “an attempt to intimidate all opponents of the war”.
“We consider Mr. Moskaliov as a political prisoner” on the run, supported the NGO dissolved last year by Russian justice.
The case began when Mr. Moskaliov’s daughter, Maria, a 13-year-old middle school student, drew a picture in class showing missiles heading towards a woman and child with a Ukrainian flag.
In the context of an all-out hunt for voices critical of the offensive in Ukraine, the school principal immediately alerted the police.
While investigating the father, authorities say they found online posts critical of the operation in Ukraine, which resulted in him being sued for “discrediting the Russian military.”
Mr. Moskaliov was placed under house arrest on March 1 and his daughter placed in a home and deprived of all contact with her father.
The future of the family will also be played out during another trial, which begins on April 6, and during which Mr. Moskaliov risks being permanently deprived of his parental authority.
Her lawyer told AFP on Tuesday that Maria Moskaliova had been placed under guardianship and could be “sent to an orphanage within a month”.
This case shows the extent of the repression orchestrated by the Kremlin in parallel with the conflict in Ukraine.
Shortly after the start of its offensive which began in February 2022, Russia introduced a series of criminal sanctions to suppress any form of criticism of the military.
Renowned opponents and ordinary citizens have been arrested, and some have already been tried and sentenced.
