Russian court orders arrest of novelist Boris Akunin
Al Jazeera
The 67-year-old was charged in December with ‘justifying terrorism’ after expressing support for Ukraine in a prank call made to him.
A Moscow court has ordered the arrest in absentia of best-selling detective writer Boris Akunin as part of an ongoing crackdown on critics of its war in Ukraine.
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ordered the arrest of Akunin, the pen name of Grigory Chkhartishvili, on Tuesday.
The 67-year-old was charged in December with “justifying terrorism” after expressing support for Ukraine in a prank call staged by pro-Kremlin activists.
Akunin, who currently resides in London, is to be detained and taken into custody if he sets foot in Russia.
The pranksters, known as Vovan and Lexus, posed as Ukrainian officials in their call last December, one of them pretending to be Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
