CNN —A Russian court has sentenced Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist, to six-and-a-half years in prison, state news agency TASS reported Monday. The hearing, which was held behind closed doors, found Kurmasheva guilty of spreading false information about the Russian army, making her just the latest US journalist to be convicted in the country in recent months. When asked about this possibility earlier Monday, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “I have no answer to this question. We need her home.”Before her conviction, Butorin told CNN he was “so confident that she would get back to us that I bought Taylor Swift tickets” for August this year. After her passports were taken, she was fined and placed under de facto – and then formal – house arrest for months, before being charged in December.

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Persons: Alsu Kurmasheva, Evan Gershkovich, Dmitry Peskov, “, ”, –, Stephen Capus, ” Capus, ” Pavel Butorin, Butorin, Taylor Swift, ” Butorin, Kurmasheva, Gershkovich Organizations: CNN, Radio Free, Radio Liberty, RFE Locations: Russian, American, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, United States, Prague, Radio Free Europe, Russia, facto