Investigators have charged Ksenia Karelina with making a donation to a charity that gives support to Ukraine.
Russian prosecutors have demanded a 15-year sentence for Ksenia Karelina, a Russian-American citizen charged with treason for making a donation to a charity supporting Ukraine.
Karelina, who was not included in a serious prisoner swap between Russia and the West final week that additionally included the discharge of Wall Avenue Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, is on trial within the metropolis of Yekaterinburg.
“The prosecution has requested a sentence of 15 years in a common penal colony,” his lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, was quoted as saying by Russian state media on Thursday.
He pleaded responsible and the court docket’s press service reported that he had filed a last attraction with the choose on Thursday. The decision is predicted to be introduced on August 15.
Karelina was born in Russia however immigrated to america in 2012 and have become a US citizen in 2021. The Los Angeles spa worker was arrested by the Federal Safety Service (FSB) after flying to Russia to go to her household in Yekaterinburg earlier this 12 months.
Investigators filed the treason cost after discovering on his cell phone that he had donated $51.80 to Razom, a charity offering support to Ukraine, when Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022.
The FSB claimed that the final word beneficiary was the Ukrainian army.
Mushailov stated prosecutors’ request for 15 years was too harsh as a result of Karelina had cooperated with the investigation, together with by voluntarily handing over her telephone.
She stated she had pleaded responsible within the hope of getting a decrease sentence and since “it was silly on this state of affairs to disclaim the plain.”
On the time of her arrest, Razom stated she was “horrified.” The charity’s web site says it helps quite a lot of humanitarian initiatives, together with offering first support kits, wooden stoves, mills, radios and automobiles for Ukrainian medics on the frontline.
Russia is holding a number of Western and twin nationals in its jails, together with Yuri Malev, a Russian-American who was sentenced to a few and a half years in jail in June for social media posts that allegedly mocked a patriotic movie related to the Soviet victory in World Battle II.
He was discovered responsible of “rehabilitating Nazism” and has been in pre-trial detention since December 2023. Malev, who labored as a safety guard in New York, pleaded responsible.
Laurent Vinatier, a 48-year-old French citizen who works on the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, was arrested in Moscow in June for allegedly failing to declare himself a “overseas agent” and gathering army info for overseas states, a criminal offense punishable by as much as 5 years in jail.
Russia has used the regulation prior to now to focus on Kremlin critics, however usually not overseas residents.
Different People nonetheless in custody on numerous prices embrace Gordon Black, a soldier sentenced in June to a few years and 9 months in jail for assaulting and robbing his Russian girlfriend, and Marc Fogel, a former trainer serving a 14-year sentence after being caught with medical marijuana that he stated he used to deal with ache.
