However Alexei Moskalyov fled home arrest earlier than his verdict was delivered in his Russian hometown of Yefremov and is at massive, courtroom officers mentioned. His 13-year-old daughter Maria, who has been taken from him by the authorities, wrote him a supportive letter for his trial from the orphanage the place she resides, based on his lawyer, telling him, “Daddy, you’re my hero.”

Moskalyov’s case has drawn worldwide consideration and was a grim reminder that the Kremlin is intensifying its crackdown on dissent, focusing on extra folks and handing out harsher punishments for any criticism of the warfare. The broad authorities marketing campaign of repression has been unseen because the Soviet period.

Moskalyov, 54, was accused of repeatedly discrediting the Russian military, a prison offense in accordance to a regulation Russian authorities adopted shortly after sending troops into Ukraine.

He was indicted for a collection of social media posts about Russian atrocities in Ukraine and referencing the “terrorist” regime in Moscow that he insists he didn’t make. However, based on his lawyer and activists who supported him all through the case and trial, his troubles began final spring after his 13-year-old daughter, Maria, drew an antiwar image at Yefremov Faculty No. 9 that depicted missiles flying over a Russian flag at a girl and little one and mentioned, “Glory to Ukraine.”

In April 2022, Moskalyov was fined for essential feedback on social media. His condo was raided in December and a prison case was opened towards him this month. He was positioned beneath home arrest and his daughter was positioned into the orphanage.

On the trial, which concluded in someday on Monday, three lecturers and the director of Maria’s faculty testified that they discovered Moskalyov’s “discrediting” social media posts at random and that Maria’s drawing had nothing to do with the case — contradicting the accounts of his lawyer and different supporters. Males in navy uniforms and medals confirmed up on the courthouse Monday, apparently in help of the authorities.

Moskalyov rejected the accusations and insisted he had nothing to do with the social media posts in query.

In a brief closing assertion, Moskalyov mentioned he was “towards” what the Kremlin insists on calling a “particular navy operation.”

“How can one really feel about loss of life, about people who find themselves dying? Adults are dying, youngsters. … Solely negatively — how else can one really feel a couple of warfare?” he was quoted as saying by Russia’s impartial information web site Mediazona.

Court docket officers mentioned Moskalyov fled home arrest in a single day from his condo in Yefremov, about 300 kilometers (about 186 miles) south of Moscow and an identical distance north of the Ukrainian border. He had been carrying a bracelet that tracked his actions however apparently had taken it off.

When an official introduced in courtroom Tuesday that Moskalyov had fled, some in attendance shouted, “Bravo!”

Moskalyov’s lawyer Vladimir Biliyenko mentioned he realized of his shopper’s disappearance on the listening to. Moskalyov was scheduled to seem in courtroom once more subsequent week on a petition to limit his parental rights.

Biliyenko instructed The Related Press the authorities’ petition to limit Moskalyov’s parental rights was based mostly virtually solely on his political beliefs and his prosecution for discrediting the military, which they mentioned posed a menace to his daughter.

The officers have additionally accused Moskalyov of being a negligent mother or father as a result of Maria stopped attending faculty after her drawing was reported to the police and she or he was questioned. In keeping with Biliyenko and Moskalyov’s supporters, she was scared to return after that and studied at dwelling.

The lawyer described the prosecution of Moskalyov as “bullying of the household.”

The lawyer visited Maria within the orphanage Tuesday and instructed reporters that whereas he wasn’t in a position to see her, native directors allowed him to {photograph} a letter she wrote to her father, which ended with, “Daddy, you’re my hero.” Biliyenko additionally was given two drawings Maria made, depicting a canine and rabbits.

Olga Podolskaya, a member of Yefremov’s municipal council who has been serving to Moskalyov, instructed AP that father and the daughter clearly love one another, and the choice to take Maria away was politically motivated. Maria’s mom left when the woman was 3 and has one other household in a unique metropolis, Podolskaya instructed AP by cellphone.

Podolskaya mentioned the information that Moskalyov escaped home arrest shocked her.

“We’re all actually frightened, together with Alexei’s lawyer,” she mentioned, including that the hope now was for different relations to hunt custody of Maria.

Biliyenko mentioned after the listening to that he tried calling Moskalyov after his go to to the orphanage, however he wasn’t answering his cellphone. “I assumed that he was being introduced right here (to the courthouse), as a result of they often arrive upfront,” he mentioned.

Russian human rights activists say the Kremlin has ramped up strain on those that disagree with the warfare. The OVD-Data rights group that tracks political instances and supplies authorized support this month has registered a rise in jail sentences for folks prosecuted for his or her antiwar stance, mentioned Daria Korolenko, the group’s lawyer and analyst.

“Repressions are choosing up pace,” Korolenko instructed AP in a cellphone interview, including that the numbers are anticipated to proceed rising.

Additionally on Tuesday, a courtroom in St. Petersburg continued a listening to within the case towards Irina Tsibaneva, 60, who’s charged with desecrating a grave. In October she left a observe on the grave of President Vladimir Putin’s mother and father that mentioned, amongst different issues: “You raised a monster and a killer.” She faces as much as 5 years in jail if convicted.

Earlier this month, a courtroom within the close by area of Tver sentenced a married couple to six 1/2 and seven years in jail on prices of vandalism and spreading false details about the military. In keeping with OVD-Data, Alexander Martynov and Lyudmila Razumova had been charged after essential social media posts and antiwar and antigovernment slogans they allegedly wrote on buildings.

In Moscow final week, police raided two bars suspected of elevating funds for Ukraine’s navy. In keeping with media studies, police performed patriotic songs and compelled the friends to sing alongside in the course of the raid. A minimum of 40 folks had been briefly detained.

One other latest raid within the capital focused an occasion devoted to the jailed artist Sasha Skochilenko, who’s on trial for spreading false details about the military. The occasion’s individuals reported being crushed by police or threatened with rape.

In Yefremov, Yelena Agafonova, an activist who has been serving to the Moskalyov household, instructed AP after the trial that anybody can run afoul of authorities today with their feedback.

“Maybe your youngsters will specific their opinion someplace. Maybe your youngsters will snicker at one thing someplace, and they are going to be in precisely the identical state of affairs through which this household is now,” she mentioned. “Maybe a neighbor, who thinks they noticed one thing (untoward), will report on you. So while you’re mendacity on the sofa, it will all occur extra, and extra, and extra.”

Observe AP’s protection of the warfare in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine