Moscow — A German artist who created carnival displays mocking the Russian president Vladimir Putin A Moscow court on Thursday sentenced him in absentia to eight and a half years in prison.
Jacques Tilly was convicted of spreading misinformation about the Russian military and insulting religious sentiments.
Carnival parades in Germany are famous for floats mocking a variety of domestic and global political figures, and Putin has often been a target.
Tilly, 62, has been designing and building floats for Düsseldorf’s Carnival parade, one of Germany’s most famous parades, since 1984.
In recent years, one of his designs has depicted Putin scrubbing himself in a bathtub filled with blood and painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, while another depicts a red-faced Putin crossing Ukraine with the words “Choke on it!” Was decorated with words.
Tilly previously told the German DPA news agency that the Russian criminal proceedings against him were a “propaganda trial of an authoritarian regime”.
Tilley said, “It is very likely that judgment has already been made against me. I believe it will be many years in prison.” “This is an attack on our freedom. On freedom of opinion, on freedom of the press, on freedom of satire, on the freedom of clowns. And here in Germany it is understood that way.”
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Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
