Russia sentences activist who helped Ukrainians flee war to 22 years in prison

FILE PHOTO: A Ukrainian service member is seen at a position near the border with Belarus, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zhytomyr region, Ukraine December 27, 2022. REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -A Russian activist who helped collect humanitarian aid for Ukraine and evacuate Ukrainians from the war zone was sentenced on Friday to 22 years in prison by a Moscow military court, the RIA state news agency reported.
Nadezhda Rossinskaya, also known as Nadin Geisler, ran a group called "Army of Beauties", which said it had assisted some 25,000 people in Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine in 2022-23, according to a report last year in The Moscow Times.
Authorities arrested Geisler in February 2024 and later charged her with treason and aiding terrorist activities over a post they said she made on Instagram calling for donations to Ukraine's Azov Battalion.
Geisler denied any wrongdoing, and her lawyer said she was not the author of the post, according to a trial transcript compiled by Mediazona, an independent Russian outlet.
Prosecutors had requested 27 years for Geisler, who is in her late 20s. Mediazona reported that she had asked the court to imprison her for 27 years and one day, so that her prison term could surpass that of Darya Trepova, a Russian woman jailed for delivering a bomb that killed a pro-war blogger in 2023.
Trepova's sentence, handed down last year, was the longest given to any woman in modern Russian history.
Prosecutions for terrorism, espionage and cooperation with a foreign state have risen sharply in Russia since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine over three years ago. Pervy Otdel, a Russian lawyers' association, says 359 people were convicted of such crimes in 2024.
(Reporting by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Frances Kerry)

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