Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One Television, has been detained after she interrupted the channel’s news broadcast in a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday.

Daily Mail reports that Ovsyannikova was seen in court with a member of her legal team after she was arrested and detained for over 12 hours.

There are concerns that she could face up to 15 years in prison under a Kremlin law which punishes

public dissemination of false information

about the invasion of Ukraine.

Daniil Berman, Ovsyannikova’s lawyer stated that she would face a criminal charge for her action.

I expect that my client, Marina Ovsyannikova, will face not an administrative charge but a criminal one under the new law which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in jail,

he said.

Ovsyannikova had staged a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday. She rushed to the set of a live broadcast shouting:

Stop the war. No to war,

while holding a placard that said,

Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.