The court rejected the defense's motion in the case of Nadezhda Kevorkova
The first hearing in the criminal case against journalist Nadezhda Kevorkova was held in the 2nd Western District Military Court. She is accused of justifying terrorism. The court rejected the defense's motion.
Since May 2024, Kevorkova has been in pretrial detention due to two posts on a Telegram channel. The first was the publication of an old text by Orkhan Dzhemal, who died in the CAR, about one of the leaders of the "attack on Nalchik" in 2005. The second publication was allegedly dedicated to justifying the Taliban movement. It is noteworthy that at the end of May 2024, the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Justice announced that the Taliban could be removed from the list of banned organizations.
Kevorkova's ex-husband, Maxim Shevchenko, called her a "true Christian." He added that in 2018, she had a hard time dealing with the death of her "close friend Orkhan Dzhemal," which was also confirmed by her mother and friends. Irina Gordienko, Dzhemal's widow, said that two years before her husband's death, his father, Heydar Dzhemal, who was a mentor to Kevorkova, had died.
At the end of the hearing, the defense petitioned for assistance in summoning the Russian President's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, for questioning. He could confirm that Kevorkova's publications about the Taliban posed no public danger. However, the judge denied the petition.
Nadezhda Kevorkova is an active volunteer for the Solidarity Foundation, helping seriously ill children and low-income people. The journalist has repeatedly visited the Gaza Strip with the support of the Russian Foreign Ministry and covered the situation in the Middle East, and has worked in Iraq and Iran. In addition, Kevorkova is the author of three books about Palestine and numerous articles about religion.
