A Moscow court on Wednesday sentenced banished Russian scholastic plagiarism advocate Dmitry Zayakin to five years in jail in absentia on extremism charges.Zayakin was jailed in August 2022 on allegations of funding extremist activities over a contribution of 1,000 rubles ($13) he made to the late opposition activist Alexei Navalnys Anti-Corruption Foundation.He is believed to have fled Russia in October 2022, around the time the Interior Ministry placed him on its desired list.
Navalny ally Georgy Alburov published a picture on Oct.
29 of that year showing Zayakin getting here in Vilnius, Lithuania.Russian authorities stated the Anti-Corruption Foundation and Navalnys larger political network extremist in 2021.
On Wednesday, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow found Zayakin guilty of funding extremism and sentenced him in absentia, according to the independent news outlet Mediazona.Zayakin had denied the charges through his attorney last month.He is a reporter and co-founder of Dissernet, an online network that investigates plagiarism in Russian universities and academic publications.
Dissernet volunteers have uncovered plagiarism in the doctoral work of various top authorities in the Russian government.Authorities previously identified Zayakin a foreign representative and added him to the nations list of terrorists and extremists.