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Russia on Thursday sentenced two activists from an organisation linked to self-exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky to lengthy prison terms on drug charges they say are trumped up and politically motivated.
The verdit comes as Russia’s opposition faces mounting pressure ahead of parliamentary elections in September.
A judge in Pskov, a city 700 kilometres (430 miles) northwest of Moscow, on Thursday found Liya Milushkina and Artyom Milushkin guilty of large-scale drug trafficking, local news website Pskovskaya Guberniya reported from court.
Milushkina — a former coordinator of the local branch of the Open Russia rights group — was sentenced to 10.5 years in a penal colony. The sentence has been deferred until 2024 as she has young children.
Her husband was handed 11 years in a maximum security prison colony on the same charges.
The couple with two children was arrested in January 2019 and charged with selling drugs based on testimony given by anonymous witnesses.
Investigators said they found amphetamines during a search of the Milushkins’ home.
Milushkin was also charged with arson.
The activists have denied their guilt and insist the charges are politically motivated.
Milushkin had said that before the arrest police threatened to plant drugs on him.
In a video from court, shared by Pskovskaya Guberniya, Milushkin is seen breaking the benches inside a cage for defendants after the verdict was announced.
Open Russia, an opposition group founded by Khodorkovsky, was labelled an “undesirable organisation in Russia in 2017 in line with a law targeting foreign groups accused of political meddling.
In May, the group said it was closing to shield its members from prosecution.
Earlier this month Russia blocked the websites of two media and one human rights group linked to Khodorkovsky in an intensifying crackdown on independent media.
Khodorkovsky, a former oligarch who owned the oil giant Yukos before he was convicted in two controversial cases and spent a decade behind bars, now lives abroad.
Kremlin critics say drug charges are routinely used in Russia to silence rights activists or to settle scores with opponents.
In May, five former policemen were sentenced to jail for planting drugs on prominent investigative reporter Ivan Golunov after an unprecedented campaign in his support.