A St Petersburg-based Russian anti-war activist, Sasha Skochilenko, has been sentenced to seven years in a penal colony for swapping supermarket pricing labels with anti-war messages. The 33-year-old artist, detained since April last year, was found guilty of disseminating "fake information" about the Russian military.

Advocates for her case argued for acquittal, citing her chronic illnesses that pose a risk of her perishing in prison. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Skochilenko participated in a protest by affixing anti-war messages on pricing labels in a local supermarket—a modest action urged by a feminist collective.

The substituted labels conveyed messages such as: "Russian forces have destroyed 80% of Mariupol. For what?" and "People I know are hiding from Russian bombs in the metro. None of them are Nazis. Stop the war."

Ms Skochilenko admitted the charges.

In her closing statement, the artist struck a defiant tone, asking the court: "How little faith does our prosecutor have in our state and society if he thinks that our statehood and public security can be ruined by five small pieces of paper?"

"Say what you want - I was wrong, or I was brainwashed," she said. "I will stand by my opinion and my truth."

Skochilenko was convicted of "discrediting the Russian army" under repressive laws adopted in the wake of the invasion.

The legislation effectively criminalises all anti-war activism.

The trial lasted a year and a half, apparently because it was one of the first to be brought under the new laws.

"At first, the investigation took a long time. Prosecutors needed to find some evidence somewhere," said her lawyer Yana Nepovinnova.

Sasha Skochilenko's sister Anna told the BBC that her sibling was "a symbol of everything the [Russian] authorities hate".

"She is artistic, fragile, lesbian, has a Ukrainian surname," Anna Skochilenko said.

She said she was terrified that her sister's chronic health conditions meant there was a risk of her dying in prison. Skochilenko has been diagnosed with coeliac disease as well as a heart defect that causes her heart to stop beating for two to three seconds.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has overseen an unprecedented crackdown on domestic opposition in parallel with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The laws used to convict Ms Skochilenko have been used to target scores of critics of his rule.

Last month, journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who protested against the invasion of Ukraine live on state TV, was convicted to 8.5 years in jail in absentia.

In April, British-Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years for his criticism of the war.