Moscow, Russia (AFP) Russian prosecutors on Monday demanded a 12-year sentence for a lawyer accused of spreading “false information” about Russian troops in Ukraine, after he helped defend a journalist convicted of treason.

Lawyer Dmitry Talantov, 63, has been put on trial in the Udmurtia region — some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) east of Moscow in the Urals mountains — charged with several counts of posting false material on the Russian army with the motivation of political hatred.

Talantov was previously on the defence team of journalist Ivan Safronov, a former reporter for the Vedomosti and Kommersant broadsheets who was detained in 2020 and jailed for 22 years in September 2022 on “high treason” charges.

The prominent investigative journalist was accused of allegedly transferring classified information to a foreign state.

A prosecutor on Monday asked the judge to find Talantov guilty and sentence him to 12 years in prison, while his defence team called for his acquittal, the Udmurtia courts’ press service wrote on social media.

The final verdict is expected November 28.

Talantov is accused of publishing five posts on his Facebook page in April 2022 about the actions of Russian troops in the Ukrainian towns of Bucha, Irpin, Kharkiv and Mariupol.

He was detained at his home in the city of Izhevsk in Udmurtia in June 2022.

Russia in March 2022 ushered in strict military censorship laws — against spreading “false information” or “discrediting” the army — a week after launching its full-scale military offensive in Ukraine.

Russian courts have issued heavy sentences against those who have spoken out against the military operation in Ukraine.