![]() In an interview with the website Meduza, published on December 5, Oksana Sevastidi said: "The prosecutor didn't let me say a word in my own defense. Everything was done in one day: the arguments, the concluding statements, and the sentence. It was all very fast and mixed up, like in a dream. And as if through a shroud, I heard the words 'seven years.'" [Translation by RFE/RL] On 2 December 2016, Memorial Human Rights Centre published a letter they had received from Oksana Sevastidi in which she writes: 'When I heard the court’s decision I almost passed out. I’ve never done a single bad thing in my life. I’m from a very good family. It’s hard to believe what kind of a place I’m in now. Please help me, not only for myself, but you would be saving another life, my mother’s. Please help me sort out my case. My case is the same as Kharebava’s, I don’t have any aggravating circumstances, only extenuating ones, and so no one understands why they gave me this sentence, everyone who finds out what I’m in here for is horrified that this can happen here. Please help me. Save the life of another political prisoner.' [translation by Sarah Hurst] Photo: RFE/RL Sources: 'Advocates claim spy hysteria in Kuban,' Caucasian Knot, 7 December 2016 Lyubov Chizhova, Andrei Sharogradsky, Robert Coalson, 'Seven Years For An SMS: Activists Alarmed Over Southern Russia Treason Convictions,' RFE/RL, 6 December 2016 Catherine A. Fitzpatrick, 'Human Rights Lawyers Discover 5 Cases of Russian Women Imprisoned for State Treason Related to Georgia,' The Interpreter, 6 December 2016 '«Прокурор мне даже слова не дал сказать в свое оправдание» Интервью Оксаны Севастиди, которую посадили по обвинению в госизмене за смс восьмилетней давности,' Meduza, 5 December 2016 'Sarah Hurst: Letter to Memorial from Oksana Sevastidi, convicted of treason [translation]', Rights in Russia, 2 December 2016 |
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