Photo by ayder.muzhdabaev on Facebook
The Western District Military Court No. 2 of Russia sentenced Ayder Mujdabayev, an executive of the Crimean Tatar channel ATR, to six years in prison in absentia for “calls for terrorism”, reports the Russian propaganda outlet TASS, citing the court.
“The court convicted Mujdabayev under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls for terrorism, public justification or promotion of terrorism) and sentenced him to six years in a low security prison in absentia; the convict will also be barred from running websites for four years,” the report says.
The journalist himself, who has been living and working in Ukraine since 2015, responded to the news sarcastically.
“Sad news incoming from the Reich… I am distraught. The sentence is too mild. Based on the total of my Russophobic crimes, I thought I’d get at least eight years… Still, convicted by a wartime court. So I will respond with wartime crimes. Reich, thank you for your trust!”
Ayder Mujdabayev is a journalist, media manager, deputy CEO of the Crimean Tatar channel ATR (Kyiv, Ukraine), former deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” (Moscow, Russia).
As reported by IMI, on June 25, the Russian Investigative Committee announced that it had placed the journalist and ATR presenter Ayder Mujdabayev on the international wanted list. He is being accused of making public calls for terrorist activities and publicly justifying terrorism online (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
According to the Russian investigation, Mujdabayev made two text posts on his personal Facebook page “featuring calls for acts of violence and forceful capture of Russian citizens in Ukraine to further swap them for Oleh Sentsov, who was convicted of terrorism in Russia.”
In 2020, the Basmanny Court of Moscow (Russia) arrested the journalist in absentia.