Krasnodar: flurry of convictions for high treason and espionage
Komanda-29 association for legal protection denounces situation. The case of Oksana Sevastadi, sentenced to seven years in prison for a text message sent to a Georgian acquaintance.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - Between 2013 and 2016 in Krasnodar - Southern Russia - at least 10 people have been convicted of high treason and espionage. It is almost a quarter of all convictions for such offenses in the country.
The situation was denounced by the association of lawyers and journalists Komanda-29, which provides legal assistance to some of these people. "We do not know and probably will not be able to know all the names and the circumstances that led these people to jail. From the basement of the FSB (Russian secret service), where these so-called trials take place, the arrested are taken to unknown destinations if no one is interested in them", the association wrote on Facebook, after the news broke of the sentence to seven years detention for Oksana Sevastidi. Before the lightning war between Russia and Georgia, in 2008, the woman had seen a train in Sochi loaded with military equipment bound for Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia, and had told a Georgian acquaintance about it via text message. Because of this Krasnodar was tried, found guilty of treason and imprisoned for seven years. The ruling was issued in March, but it became known only recently, when the legal Komanda-29 started to demand her release.
Russian law on high treason was amended in October 2012, after the street protests against the return of Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin, the most massive of the last 15 years. According to experts, the FSB – criticized for failing to predict and contain the protests - wanted a more powerful tool for action. The legal definition of treason has been expanded to include "providing financial, technical or other assistance to foreign States or international organizations, aimed at damaging Russia's security." Since then cases of convictions for this offense have mushroomed.
A case similar to that of Sevastidi occurred in November 2014 when Ekaterina Kharebava, a Georgian citizen who lived in Sochi, was sentenced to six years of imprisonment by the Krasnodar court for "espionage." She, too, in 2008, had sent a text message to an acquaintance in Georgia signaling the movements of Russian military means. According Komanda-29, Kharebava shares her cell with a woman condemned for the same reason: Inga Tutisani, also arrested for sending text messages deemed dangerous to state security. (N.A.)
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14/06/2017 08:57
10/07/2012
