Source: 'Letter to Memorial from Oksana Sevastidi,' convicted of treason, X-Soviet, 2 December 2016


Dear Sergei Konstantinovich,

Convicted under article 275 Oksana Valerievna Sevastidi is writing to you, resident of the city of Sochi, but currently serving a sentence in IK-3 in Kineshma. I’m writing to you with a request for help. I was sentenced by the Krasnodar Krai court under article 275 to seven years for a text message. In January 2017 I will have been serving my sentence for two years already. I’ve heard a lot about your help. You helped Ms. [Yekaterina] Kharebava, who has already been freed from prison with your help.

I have exactly the same case as her. I’m a Russian citizen, I didn’t even suspect that I was doing something illegal. My text message was analysed and the investigation concluded that it was not classified. The same investigator and judge oversaw my case and Kharebava’s. My text message was sent in April 2008 and, as you say, there was no military conflict going on in Sochi.

But I was arrested on January 15, 2015. It was based on the fact that there was a war in Ossetia. But it started in August. I said one thing in my testimony, but in court they completely twisted it, even my mother’s testimony was changed. I’m from a military family, my grandmother, who was WWII disabled category 1, couldn’t stand it when I was arrested and died in April. [Read more]