Human rights organizations ready to support Mikhail Savva in immigration

The international human rights organizations "Amnesty International" (AI) and "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) have expressed their readiness to help Professor Mikhail Savva, the Director of Grant Programmes of the Southern Regional Resource Centre (SRRC), who was forced to leave Russia for fear of further prosecution.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 16 the criminal-executive inspectorate addressed the court of Krasnodar with a demand to send Mikhail Savva to colony, because he has violated the regime of serving the conditional imprisonment by hiding abroad. On February 19 Professor Savva confirmed his departure from Russia. According to his story, he made the decision because of a threat of further prosecution.

"We believe that he is being persecuted solely for political reasons – for his statements against the illegal actions of Kuban authorities. We will continue following his fate and supporting him in his immigration," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the Russian representative office of one of the above organizations.

The address of the criminal-executive inspectorate was expected, Mikhail Savva wrote by email to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"If they had found me at my residence, they should have invented some reason to put me behind bars, like it was with Evgeny Vitishko, who was arrested for his alleged use of foul language at the stop of public transport," he assured.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.