Colony conditions tightened for Gennady Afanasyev

According to the lawyer, the court may increase the term of imprisonment of the witness in the Sentsov-Kolchenko case, who now serves his sentence in the Republic of Komi in Russia, on trumped-up pretexts.

After Gennady Afanasyev had withdrawn his testimony against Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko saying that he had given the evidence under tortures, he became the personal enemy of the Russian Federal Security Service, lawyer of Gennady Afanasyev, Aleksandr Popkov, said.

As the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent reports, the lawyer filed cassation appeal against the verdict.

“We have the knockdown grounds to cancel the verdict, but we do not know how the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation will behave,” Aleksandr Popkov said.

The situation is complicated by the fact that Gennady Afanasyev had admitted his guilt during the pre-trial investigation, so the appeal against the judgment was not filed. When Gennady withdrew the testimony and thus terminated the deal with the investigation, the prosecutor’s office had to file the appeal but it did not do that.

Gennady Afanasyev is now serving his sentence in harsh conditions. The colony is located in the north, 90 people live in the room of 110 square meters. The convicts are allowed to go outside only for an hour and a half per day. Gennady has got four penalties already. According to the lawyer, all of them are absurd and far-fetched.

According to Aleksandr Popkov, Gennady won’t be released in seven years as his term of imprisonment is likely to be increased on trumped-up pretexts.

According to Gennady’s mother, Olha Afanasyeva, her son was transferred to the colony more than a month ago. He was not given linen, mattresses, and any food virtually. He is under moral pressure. Now he is preparing to serve the sentence in the ward-type room. This means that Gennady will have no right to visits of relatives and telephone calls, the amount of deliveries from relatives will be significantly limited. According to his mother, Gennady does not give up and is ready for everything. He hopes for his people and his country.

As a reminder, Gennady Afanasyev is still the citizen of Ukraine, he did not take Russian citizenship. The Russian security authorities consider him to be the citizen of the Russian Federation automatically due to the annexation of Crimea.