Ukrainian citizen Litvinov recognized as political prisoner

The “Memorial” human rights centre (Russia) has recognized Ukrainian citizen Serhiy Litvinov, who was convicted in the Russian Federation, as a political prisoner.

The relevant information was posted on the Memorial’s website.

“The criminal case has signs of falsification, the circumstances of the case allow to speak of the absence of the elements of crime. Before the indictment was brought in, Litvinov had been deprived of his liberty for a year, as we believe, for knowingly false charges of war crimes. Physical and psychological pressures are likely to be put. So, we can talk about a serious violation of the right to liberty and security of person guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights,” the organization experts explained their decision.

In April, the Russian court sentenced Serhiy Litvinov to 8.5 years in a maximum security penal colony for robbery. Ukrainian citizen Litvinov was detained by Russian law enforcement officers as a fighter of the volunteer battalion on suspicion of killing 40 people during the fighting in Donbas. Later, the charges were reclassified due to lack of evidence of guilt.

Litvinov was tried under Part 3 of Article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (robbery). This article provides for up to 12 years in prison.

According to the investigators, in summer of 2014 he along with two “representatives of the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine committed an armed assault with a Kalashnikov rifle on a Russian citizen” in one of the villages in Luhansk region. The attackers allegedly “stole two cars belonging to the victim and injured him.”