-
A Russian teenager was jailed for 15 years for donating to Russia’s Legion of Freedom, local media reported.
-
Danila Yakovlev in Siberia had donated $54 to the organization source told Mediazona.
-
He was found guilty of treason and financing terrorism, court records show.
A Russian 19-year-old was sentenced to 15 years in prison for donating to a pro-Ukrainian paramilitary unit, independent body Mediazona reports this.
Danila Yakovlev, from Biysk, a city in the border region of Altai Krai, was also fined 100,000 rubles, or about $1,082, and will serve 13 years of his sentence in a high-security penal colony, according to the newspaper.
An unnamed source familiar with Yakovlev’s case told the newspaper that Yakovlev had donated a “very small amount” of about 5,000 rubles, or $54.
Russian security services said they arrested a 19-year-old in January on charges of sending money to an anti-Kremlin organization.
The FSB did not release his name at the time, but video of the arrest circulating online showed Yakovlev saying his name as officers detained him. Russian newspaper Kommersant reported at the time that the teen had tried to send the money via cryptocurrency.
It was also reported that the beneficiary organization is the Freedom of Russia Legiona paramilitary group that has done so repeatedly attacked and sabotaged military resources within Russia’s borders for the cause of Ukraine.
The Russian Supreme Court has done that labeled the group a terrorist organization.
After Yakovlev’s arrest in January footage appeared online of federal agents entering an apartment to detain a young man, who identifies himself in the video as the 19-year-old.
Court records do not provide details of Yakovlev’s sentence, but show that he was sentenced on September 20 by Russia’s 2nd Military District Court after several hearings over the past two months.
Yakovlev was found guilty of treason and financing terrorism, records show.
Mediazona reported that Yakovlev was initially charged with multiple attempts to finance terrorism, but several were dropped because many of his transactions had failed.
Yakovlev is not the first Russian citizen to be sentenced to more than ten years in prison for donating to pro-Ukrainian groups.
In August, 33-year-old amateur ballerina Ksenia Khavana According to Russian media, he has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for donating $51 to a charity that supports Ukraine.
Their cases come after Russian leader Vladimir Putin signed a law in April 2023, The maximum sentence for treason is increased from twenty years to life in prison.
Read the original article Business insider
