Alexandra Popova, wife of a Russian poet, Artym Kamaridin, has described as unjust the decision of a Moscow court to sentence her husband to seven years imprisonment over a poem he wrote to criticise the war against Ukraine.
“It is a very harsh sentence. Seven years for poems, for a non-violent crime,” AFP quoted her as saying.
Kamarideen’s supporters too defied court restrictions as they yelled no to the jailing.
He was sentenced on Thursday for reciting verses against the Ukraine campaign during an anti-mobilisation protest last year.
As AFP reports, Artyom Kamardin, 33, was sentenced alongside Yegor Shtovba, 23, who also took part in the protest and received a sentence of five years and six months.
The two were seen behind a glass partition in a heavily guarded courtroom.
Just before his sentencing, a smiling Kamardin recited a poem that refers to poetry as “gut-wrenching” and is often disliked by “people accustomed to order.”
After the sentence was read out, there were cries of “Shame!” from supporters in the courtroom, some of whom were later detained by police outside the court building, an AFP reporter stated.
Russian authorities have detained thousands for simple acts of protest against the offensive in Ukraine, with criticism effectively outlawed.
Kamardin said his detention was particularly violent, claiming that officers raped him and forced him to film an apology video while threatening his partner.
On the eve of his arrest in September 2022, he recited his poem “Kill me, militia man!” on a Moscow square where dissidents have been gathering since the Soviet era.
Kamardin also shouted offensive slogans against the imperial “New Russia” project aiming to annex the south of Ukraine.
Both were convicted of “inciting hatred” and “calling for activities threatening state security.”
Kamardin had told the court he did not know his actions broke the law and asked for mercy.
“I am not a hero, and going to prison for my beliefs was never in my plans,” he said in a statement posted on his supporters’ Telegram channel.
