![]() The Moscow Times reported that Byvshev's lawyer, Vladimir Suchkov, said his client plans to appeal against the ruling, and pointed out "that the judge did not even consider the poem that led to the criminal prosecution during the hearings. Instead she heard the testimony of 40 ‘witnesses’, many of whom, it transpired, could not remember a single line of the poem which allegedly offended them. Some of their statements are reported here." The Sova Centre had earlier condemned the prosecution as unlawful. Meanwhile, it was reported that the entry in Wikipedia about the prosecution of Aleksandr Byvshev had been taken down. Extracts from Aleksandr Byvshev's final address to the court can be read here here. Photo: Human Rights in Ukraine Sources: Halya Coynash, 'Russian poet sentenced over poem in support of Ukraine' Human Rights in Ukraine, 14 July 2015 Halya Coynash, 'Wikipedia censors poet on trial for poem against Russian annexation of Crimea', Human Rights in Ukraine, 10 July 2015 'A poet from Kromy was condemned as "extremist",' Sova Centre, 20 January 2015 Ivan Zhilin, 'Writing poetry in Russia is a dangerous profession', Open Democracy, 16 April 2015 'Учитель Бывшев: "Бандеровцем меня считать нельзя!",' BBC, 13 July 2015 |
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