MOSCOW — A Russian court unexpectedly freed a prominent student protester on Friday after handing him a three-year suspended jail sentence on extremism charges in a case that has caused outcry among the Kremlin’s critics. But the court did not accept a demand from Russian prosecutors to jail Zhukov for four years and opted to give him a suspended sentence instead. One of Russia’s top universities, it is run by prominent economist Yaroslav Kuzminov, husband of Russia’s central bank governor. Prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny welcomed the news of Zhukov’s suspended sentence, but said he should never have been prosecuted. One was handed a one-year jail sentence, while the other two were freed after they were given a suspended two-year jail sentence and a 120,000 rouble ($1,880) fine, respectively.

Source: National Post December 06, 2019 12:56 UTC