Court of appeal commutes sentence to activist Anastasia Shevchenko

The Rostov Regional Court has reduced the prison term for activist Anastasia Shevchenko, who has left Russia, by a year.

On August 30, 2022, Anastasia, a Rostov activist, reported that she had left for Vilnius with her children. On September 7, it became known that Shevchenko was included into the database of wanted persons of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). On December 20, 2022, a court in Rostov-on-Don replaced Shevchenko's conditional sentence awarded within a case of collaboration with an undesirable organization for three years in colony.

The court imposed a lighter sentence than the prosecution demanded, but the conditional imprisonment also implies a number of restrictions, Anastasia then pointed out. In August 2021, the court reduced Shevchenko's conditional sentence down to three years.

Let us remind you that on February 7, 2021, in her last word at trial, Shevchenko called on judges not to fulfil a political order to prosecute activists. The international historical and educational human rights and charitable society "Memorial"*** declared Shevchenko a political prisoner. On May 23, 2019, Shevchenko was awarded the Boris Nemtsov Award for her courage in defending democratic values in Russia.

On December 22, 2022, it became known that the short documentary "Anastasia" about the persecution of Anastasia Shevchenko and the history of her family was included into the list of 15 candidates for the "Oscar" Award.