TALLINN – A doctor accused of criticizing the war in Ukraine in front of a patient was convicted Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison, part of a relentless crackdown by the Kremlin against dissent.

Dr. Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was arrested in February after Anastasia Akinshina, the mother of one of her patients, reported the pediatrician to authorities. Akinshina claimed that Buyanova told her and her son that his father, a Russian soldier apparently killed in Ukraine, was a legitimate target for kyiv’s troops and blamed the war on Moscow.

A video of an outraged Akinshina complaining about Buyanova was widely distributed, and the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, personally demanded that criminal proceedings be initiated against the doctor.

Buyanova, born in western Ukraine, has denied the accusation, insisting she never said what she was accused of. In a tearful final statement to the court last week, she urged him to acquit her.

His defense argued that the prosecution failed to present evidence that the alleged conversation took place, including recordings of it, and alleged that his accuser fabricated the story out of animosity toward Ukrainians, according to the independent news site Mediazona, which reported all the hearings. in the trial.

In her final statement to the court, Buyanova said it was “painful” to read the accusations contained in the indictment and she broke down.

“A doctor, especially a pediatrician, is not capable of wishing harm to a child, to his mother, nor of traumatizing the child’s psyche. Only a monster is capable of that – and of the words I would have said to them,” she said, as quoted by Mediazona.

Buyanova’s case has attracted national attention, with more than 6,500 people signing an online petition demanding her freedom and supporters regularly attending court hearings. As the judge read the verdict, they shouted, “Shame!” before bailiffs escorted everyone out of the courtroom.

His lawyer, Oscar Cherdzhyev, later told reporters that the verdict was “surprisingly harsh” and “monstrously cruel.”

“We didn’t expect this,” he said.

“Spreading false information” about the military has been a criminal offense since March 2022, when Russia passed a series of laws banning public expression about the invasion that deviates from the official narrative. The authorities began to actively use them against critics and protesters.

According to OVD-Info, one of Russia’s leading human rights groups that tracks political arrests, more than 1,000 people have been implicated in criminal cases on charges related to comments or actions against the war.