The Russian prosecutor’s office on Friday demanded two years in prison with hard labor in a Moscow court against four editors of the student magazine Doxa. The foursome may also no longer manage a website for three years if it is up to the judiciary. That reports the BBC† The journalists are suspected of involving minors in ‘illegal activities’.
The case revolves around a video published in January last year on Doxa (Greek for opinion). In it, students, including minors, are urged to make their voices heard for the release of opposition politician Alexei Navalny. Not long after, Armen Aramyan, Vladimir Metyolkin, Natalia Tyshkevich and Alla Gutnikova were lifted from their beds. The foursome maintain that they are innocent.
The journalists have been under house arrest for almost a year, but refuse to be silenced. In a recent interview with The Moscow Times they call themselves “hostages” and speak out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
At the same time, the editors did not want to talk about the trial and the interrogations in their closing statement on Friday. “It’s boring and useless. I want to talk about philosophy, literature and poetry,” Gutnikova said. While acknowledging that the world is not perfect, she says it was created for “tenderness, hope, love, solidarity, passion and joy.” But, she continued, there is “an appalling, unbearable amount of violence in the world. And I don’t want violence.” The foursome asked, among other things, for a minute of silence for the victims in Ukraine. It is not known when the court will rule on the case.
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