The Moscow City Court reviewed the appeal against the 8-year colony sentence of 60-year-old nurse Olga Menshikh, who was sentenced in October 2024 to eight years in a colony for the case of military «fakes» for posts on social media about the events in Bucha and Vinnytsia. The Moscow City Court upheld the sentence, reported a correspondent from RusNews in the courtroom.
In their appeal, the defense pointed out that the expert conclusion contained in the case materials is inadmissible evidence, as the psychological-linguistic examination was conducted at the Federal State Institution Research Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service, which is not a state expert institution, violating current legislation.
The defense also petitioned to attach the response from the administration of «VKontakte» to the appeal. «The content of the internet publications attributed to Menshikh was edited in unknown ways», — quoted RusNews the lawyer.
To discuss this request, the court announced a recess, during which Menshikh stated that she plans to declare a hunger strike in detention starting tomorrow. The woman noted that it is «not related to politics», and she is defending «a girl».
The prosecutor in court reiterated the essence of the accusation and stated that a severe punishment is necessary for the accused for correction.
In her final statement, Menshikh declared that the prosecutor's words «have no relation to reality». «The case involves a large number of officials, generals, colonels, surveillance, wiretapping, secrecy. An appearance was created that there was a fight against a state criminal. But at some point, by order of the FSB, the activity ceased, including illegal phone tapping. And it was instructed to fabricate the case, and investigator Gavrilov, according to his own words, was just framing it, as everything was decided in advance.
All this is an organization of three letters, these people with burning heads and pure hearts, skilled sowers of all-consuming fear.
In their time, no conclusions were drawn from the attempt to build a 70-year utopia. Press on — that's the slogan of the day. Who? How do you plan to live? In detention, I just saw a trial of a lovely businesswoman. Who haven't I seen here? Mothers with many children. Doctors. Sent to stage in a wheelchair.
A society sick with fear cannot create, be happy, love. The entire machine of fear is aimed at destroying all of us», — said Menshikh.
In October 2024, nurse of the Moscow Pirogov Surgical Center Olga Menshikh was sentenced to eight years in a general regime colony under the article on «military fakes». According to the investigation, she posted on her page on «VKontakte» about the events in Bucha and the missile attack in Vinnytsia. The posts had 20 and 28 views.
Menshikh herself denied authorship and claimed that her page was hacked. She linked her persecution to daily publications about the death of Alexei Navalny* and regular visits to his grave at Borisov Cemetery.
* Listed as a «terrorist and extremist».
Photo: Sotavision