MOSCOW A Russian court on Thursday convicted several members of a youth group on extremism charges widely seen by critics as fabricated.
Moscow’s Lyublino District Court found members of the New Greatness group guilty of creating an extremist organization. A sentence is expected later.
Prosecutors have asked the court to sentence three members to terms of six to seven and a half years in prison, and to give four other members suspended sentences between four and six and a half years.
They were arrested in March 2018 on charges of creating an extremist organization aiming to overthrow the government. Defense lawyers have maintained that an undercover police agent wrote the groups radical program, effectively fabricating the case against young people with opposition views who were just meeting to discuss politics.
The case has been criticized by human rights advocates as a glaring example of police abuse and politically motivated application of Russias anti-extremism laws.
The arrests of the two youngest members 17-year-old Anna Pavlikova and 19-year-old Maria Dubovik prompted a big protest in August 2018, after which the two teens were released under house arrest.
A member who has remained in jail said he was beaten and tortured by police.
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