MOSCOW (AP) — A provincial Russian court on Monday overturned the verdict for a cleaning lady who was convicted of disseminating child pornography in a social media post decrying abuse.
Yevgenia Chudnovets, who worked in a kindergarten in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, was sentenced to six months in prison last November for posting a three-second video of child abuse in a summer camp. She called for the perpetrators to be punished. Individuals captured in the footage were eventually convicted and sent to prison.
In a rare ruling, the district court in the Kurgan region overturned the November verdict and ruled to release the woman, who has spent three months in prison. She is now eligible for rehabilitation and damages from the state for her ordeal.
Chudnovets' conviction comes amid a wave of criminal cases against Russians for various social media posts that began last year.
Rights activists and lawyers say the drop in violent hate crimes sent police and investigators scrambling to prosecute people for non-violent offenses to show a solid record of tackling extremism.
Alexei Bushmakov, lawyer for Chudnovets, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that he expects his client to be released on Tuesday.
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