According to the court, the artist was guilty of spreading false news about the Russian army, which carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years in Russia.
Skočilenková has been in custody since April 2022. Her relatives point out that she has serious health problems that worsen during her stay behind bars. The thirty-three-year-old artist suffers from a congenital heart defect and a chronic intestinal disease.
The trial of Skočilenkova was unusually long, and many hours of court hearings often lasted from morning until evening. The woman could not eat during the day, and in the evening she could no longer have dinner in detention. During the hearing, she had to specifically ask for breaks to eat, drink, use the toilet or take pills, but the court often refused. Skočilenková and her lawyers called this action torture several times, the Russian editorial staff of the BBC described.
According to Rádio Svobodná Evropa/Rádio Svoboda, Skočilenkova was detained after she exchanged five price tags in a supermarket for a message stating the number of victims in Ukraine and calling for an end to the war. “My process is so strange and ridiculous that the staff of the detention center roll their eyes in disbelief and ask if they really send people to prison for this nowadays,” Skočilenková said earlier. According to the Meduza portal, Skočilenko was reported by a 76-year-old customer who read one of the messages in the supermarket.
