Journalist Imprisoned for Falsely Reporting Official’s Death

A court in Kazan, Tatarstan (a Russian constituent region), sentenced Irek Murtazin, formerly Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaymiev’s press secretary, later an opposition journalist, to one year and nine months of imprisonment for criminal defamation for falsely reporting Shaymiev’s death. That statement was published in Murtazin’s blog in 2008 when Shaymiev was temporarily unavailable to the public and press. Murtazin was also found guilty of “inciting hatred against a social group” (the group being the Tatarstan government) on the basis of critical materials he had published in his articles and a book.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1281226&NodesID=6