German Artist Jailed for Putin Carnival Float

0:00On April 2nd, a German sculptor named Jacques Tilly just got hit with a harsh sentence from a Moscow court for one of his wild carnival floats. It showed Russian President Vladimir Putin and Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in a pretty explicit act. The judge slapped him with 8 years and 6 months in a penal colony plus a fine of 200,000 rubles. That's about 2005. $100 and a 4-year ban on running websites, all in absentia since Tilly lives in Germany and ain't going anywhere near Russia. This all stems from a float he made back at carnival time, but prosecutors also dragged in a recent interview where Tilly blasted the Russian, military's actions in Ukraine as bloody crimes. He called the whole case an attack on free speech, and yeah, with him not even in the country, none of this sticks legally. Tilly's built a rep for these bold and your face creations that roast world leaders. Tilly Putin soaking in a blood-filled tub painted Ukraine's blue and yellow, or him in former President Donald Trump chowing down on a map of Europe.

1:03He's targeted folks like Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan too, always aiming to shake up power structures. In court, they rode out statements from three witnesses claiming outrage over the sculpture, though none showed up to testify. An expert flat-out said the figures were clearly Putin in uniform and the Patriarch as a clergyman. Russia's flexing heart on critics like Tilly, even from afar, showing how far they're willing to go to silence dissent, do art, keeps the free expression fight front and center. From around the world, powered by AI, this is Global News Today.