A Moscow court decided on Thursday to sentence Russian-Israeli blogger and opposition figure Maxim Katz to eight years in prison.
The trial was held in absentia, and Katz is not expected to serve his punishment unless he returns to Russia. The Russian state prosecutor asked to sentence him to 10 years, but the court decided on a slightly lighter sentence of eight.
The case against Katz came after he published a video last April that showed the Ukrainian town of Bucha where the Russian army carried out a massacre and horrifying acts on civilians.
Katz's defense said that his client does not deny the fact he published information on the issue, but he did not plead guilty to any charge, and the information that he relied on was confirmed by international sources.
Since the Russian incursion into Ukraine and the passing of the Fake News Law, Russia has punished citizens who criticized the Russian military's conduct or Russia and who called the actions in Ukraine a "war" or an "incursion."
The set punishments in the Fake News Law vary from a fine on the low end to 15 years in prison on the high end.