Russian anti-war activist and cartoonist Aleksandra “Sasha” Skochilenko is now free from a seven-year jail sentence as a part of the historic prisoner swap that launched Wall Avenue Journal reporter Evan Gershkovitz final week.
Russian authorities arrested Skochilenko in April 2022 after she changed 5 worth tags at a grocery retailer with small leaflets opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She was charged with disseminating “false info” in regards to the nation’s army actions.
At her sentencing final November, Skochilenko requested the court docket, “How weak is our prosecutor’s religion in our state and society if he believes that our statehood and public security might be destroyed by 5 small items of paper?”
The grim sentence drew criticism from human rights teams who referred to as the cost — and the regulation penalizing the unfold of details about the Russian army — a sham.
“Her persecution has grow to be synonymous with the absurdly merciless oppression confronted by Russians brazenly opposing their nation’s legal battle,” Marie Struthers, Amnesty Worldwide’s Jap Europe and Central Asia director, mentioned on the time.
One of many protest worth tags utilized in Skochilenko’s venture learn: “Russian military bombed an artwork faculty in Mariupol. There have been 400 folks hiding from the hearth inside.”
An Related Press investigation revealed that the bombing resulted in as many as 600 deaths at Mariupol Drama Theatre, which was functioning as a bomb shelter.
“For 20 years Putin lies to us from TV screens. Because of this we’re desirous to justify battle and meaningless deaths,” learn one other price ticket.
Amnesty Worldwide referred to as for Russia’s Prosecutor Common Krasnov Igor Viktorovich to drop all fees in opposition to Skochilenko as a “prisoner of conscience” and warned that the artist’s life was in peril in jail as a consequence of her celiac illness and coronary heart situation.
Earlier than changing into an internationally acknowledged political prisoner, Skochilenko drew cartoons together with these featured in her 2014 work A Ebook About Melancholy, translated into English and Spanish and out there in a web-based PDF. Within the comedian, Skochilenko recounts her personal expertise with melancholy and the way she has discovered reduction.
In a photograph posted to Skochilenko’s verified Fb account on August 2, simply in the future after her launch, she poses kissing her girlfriend with the caption “freedom.”
