A Russian News correspondent named Maria Ponomarenko, who reported on military topics and was sentenced to six years in prison on accusations of fraud against the Russian Armed Forces, wrote a letter from SIZO-2 in which she claimed that doctors from the psychiatric brigade beat her. The incident was reported as unfolding in the city of Biysk, with information attributed to a Telegram channel linked to Kommersant via RusNews.
According to the Telegram channel, personnel searched Ponomarenko in the pre-trial detention center, confiscated some items from food brought the previous day, and demanded she undress. When she refused, it allegedly triggered a nervous breakdown. RusNews reported that detention center officials then summoned doctors from the psychiatric brigade to report on the journalist’s condition.
The journalist’s letter describes a sequence in which she was forced into a search table, her wrists bound, and then thrown to the ground by ambulance personnel. She was subsequently taken to a hospital and claimed she was held there without receiving any treatment for three days.
She described the moment of transport, saying that she was dragged into an ambulance and that beatings occurred to her back, chest, stomach, and head while she was moved down stairs. The account attributed these details to her experience during the incident.
The situation around Maria Ponomarenko also involves social media activity in which she posted about an alleged Russian air raid on a drama theater in Mariupol in April 2022. She was detained in Saint Petersburg, while the Russian Ministry of Defense denied those posts.
In September, during a court hearing to extend her detention, Ponomarenko spoke about a possible suicide attempt that allegedly occurred in a pre-trial detention center. According to her account, medical professionals diagnosed her with hysterical personality disorder and claustrophobia.
On February 15, Ponomarenko appeared in court in connection with a forgery case involving the Russian Armed Forces, asserting her not guilty plea in a general regime penal colony setting, after being held since February in that jurisdiction.