A woman from Irkutsk, a major city in Siberia, has been sentenced to 5.5 years in a penal colony for anti-war comments.

The 2nd Eastern District Military Court has sentenced Natalia Doroshenko, a resident of Irkutsk, a major city in Siberia, to five and a half years in a general regime penal colony for “justifying terrorism” (Part 2, Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code) over comments about the war in Ukraine, reports the outlet Siberia.Realii.

According to the case summary on the court’s website, the verdict was delivered on 27 June.

Friends and colleagues of the 49-year-old Doroshenko say that the statements forming the basis of the charges “contained entirely harmless words and phrases.”

“Officers from the Centre for Combating Extremism of the Irkutsk Region Interior Ministry trawled through her posts and found statements like ‘I am against the war’ or ‘they [Ukrainians] are defending their homeland’ and similar phrases, and cobbled together a criminal case,” says a friend of the convicted woman.

A woman who knows her said that recently Doroshenko “was just an ordinary accountant” and previously worked in the bailiffs’ service.

“Her words could hardly have offended even the most zealous supporters of the war—many of them themselves are hoping for the war to end soon. The fact that Ukrainians are defending their land seems fairly obvious as well. I think someone took issue with the fact that she considers herself Ukrainian on her father’s side. Until recently, this wasn’t a problem to talk about openly. Apparently, even that has changed,” the acquaintance said.

According to another acquaintance, Doroshenko pleaded guilty.

Doroshenko faced a total of five episodes of “justifying terrorism.” She was taken into custody after the verdict was announced.

Siberia.Realii notes that Doroshenko’s father, Viktor Doroshenko, was a general in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and for a time headed the police in Ust-Kut, a city in Irkutsk Region. The Doroshenko family were descendants of dispossessed settlers in Siberia and identified as Ukrainian. According to acquaintances, he left the Interior Ministry in 2005 out of dissatisfaction with its state. In 2020, Doroshenko died from pneumonia during the coronavirus pandemic.