Fugitive Russian Father Convicted of Insulting Military Has Been Detained -Lawyer

(Reuters) – Alexei Moskalyov, a Russian man sentenced to 2 years in jail for discrediting the Russian military, and whose daughter was taken into care, has been detained after fleeing home arrest, lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov instructed Reuters on Thursday.

“He has been detained, sure,” Zakhvatov mentioned, with out offering extra particulars.

The Russian-language information outlet SOTA reported earlier that Moskalyov, 54, had been arrested in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, a staunch Russian ally.

Moskalyov got here to the eye of Russian police final 12 months after his daughter Masha, then 12, drew an anti-war image at college exhibiting Russia firing missiles at a Ukrainian mom and little one.

He was later charged with discrediting Russia’s armed forces in reference to separate anti-war feedback he was alleged to have made on social media.

The case has resonated extensively in Russia and overseas, significantly since Masha, now 13, was separated from her father and positioned in a youngsters’s house firstly of March.

Moskalyov fled home arrest within the early hours of Tuesday. Later the identical day, a courtroom sentenced him in absentia to 2 years in a penal colony.

(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Enhancing by Andrew Osborn)

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