A third criminal case has been opened against journalist Maria Ponomarenko in the penal colony.

A third criminal case has now been brought against journalist Maria Ponomarenko, on charges of causing non-serious harm to health (Part 2, Article 321 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by her support group.

The post states that a new lawyer, Yana Borovikova, will take on the case as Dmitry Shitov no longer represents Ponomarenko. She herself has not yet given testimony.

At the tuberculosis hospital in Barnaul, a major city in Siberia, the political prisoner will be held for about two weeks, after which she will be transferred to Penal Colony No. 6 in Shipunovo. According to her lawyer, the journalist appears well but for a long time has been unable to write with her right hand.

Between 30 July and 9 August, Ponomarenko made three suicide attempts. The first two were in the temporary detention facility of Penal Colony No. 9 in Rubtsovsk, a city in southwestern Siberia. Frequent isolation punishments during illness led to these attempts. The third time, she cut herself in Penal Colony No. 6, Shipunovo, following a conflict with colony staff. According to her lawyer, this resulted in significant blood loss and she was hospitalised. She required a blood transfusion.

In August, Ponomarenko was transferred from Penal Colony No. 9 to Penal Colony No. 6. When Shitov tried to visit her at the new facility on 13 August, she was no longer there, and staff refused to say where she was. “Judging by the circumstances, she was here. Apparently, something happened,” the lawyer concluded at the time. The next day, she was found in hospital in Barnaul.

During her incarceration, the journalist has repeatedly been placed in a punitive isolation cell, most recently in July. In March, she wrote in letters from the pre-trial detention centre that she had slashed her veins due to continuing abuse by Federal Penitentiary Service staff.

Ponomarenko has been diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder; her lawyer has stressed that she requires medical psychotherapeutic care, which cannot be provided in pre-trial detention.

On 25 September, Maria Ponomarenko was transferred from hospital, as reported by RusNews. The journalist is now in the pre-trial detention centre at Penal Colony No. 9 in Rubtsovsk.

• In February 2023, the Leninsky District Court of Barnaul, a major city in Siberia, sentenced Maria Ponomarenko to six years in a penal colony in a case about so-called “fakes” about the Russian military (clause “d” of Part 2, Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). The reason for prosecution was her post about the air strike on the drama theatre in Mariupol, where civilians were present.
• In March, the Shipunovo District Court of Altai Krai sentenced Ponomarenko to one year and ten months in a penal colony on charges of inflicting non-life-threatening harm to a colony employee (Part 2, Article 321 of the Criminal Code). After calculating her sentences and time already served in pre-trial detention, her overall term was increased by one month. The journalist was accused of attacking two prison staff who were attempting to take her before a disciplinary committee. Ponomarenko herself denied this and said the prison staff had smothered her with a pillow and banged her head on the floor.