Moscow Court Jails Ex-Ukrainian Presidential Aide Oleksiy Arestovych 11 Years in Absentia
A judge found Arestovych guilty of spreading false information about the Russian military and publicly calling for terrorism.
A former aide to Ukraine's president, Oleksiy Arestovych, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in absentia by a Moscow court on Friday. The judge found Arestovych guilty of spreading false information about Russia's military actions and urging terrorism. Russian authorities accused him of making false statements about a missile strike in Kramatorsk in April 2022 and calling for the sabotage of railway lines delivering supplies to Russian forces in a March 2022 video.
The Second Western District Military Court handed down the verdict following a closed-door trial. In addition to the prison sentence, Arestovych was banned from managing websites for four years. Prosecutors sought a 15-year sentence, but the judge reduced it to 11 years. Arestovych, who served as an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office until 2023, has since become a critic of the Ukrainian government.
Zelensky sanctioned him last year, and Russia added him to its list of "terrorists and extremists" in 2023. The Moscow Times, an independent news outlet, criticized the Russian government's actions as attempts to silence independent journalism in the country. The news organization called for support to continue its work in the face of repression.
Written by urgent.news from The Moscow Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
