Russian court spurns emotional appeal from man whose daughter drew anti-war picture

FILE PHOTO: Vladimir Bilienko, lawyer for Russian citizen Alexei Moskalyov, who is accused of discrediting the country's armed forces in the course of Russia-Ukraine military conflict, arrives for a court hearing in the town of Yefremov in the Tula region, Russia, April 6, 2023. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina FILE PHOTO

(Reuters) - A Russian man who was investigated by police after his daughter drew an anti-war picture at school told a court in the regional capital of Tula on Monday that he would rather face capital punishment than be separated from her.

Alexei Moskalyov was sentenced in March to two years in a penal colony for discrediting the Russian army. He fled house arrest in the town of Yefremov, in the Tula region south of Moscow, and escaped to Belarus, but was quickly rearrested and returned to Russia.