Observers find it necessary to protect key defence witnesses in Sentsov's case
The observers believe that rights defenders and the Ombudsperson must protect the rights of Gennady Afanasiev and Alexei Chirnij – the key witnesses in the case of "Sentsov's group".
Oleg Sentsov is accused of creating a Crimean branch of the "Right-Wing Sector", which committed "arsons of the office of the public organization 'Russian Community of the Crimea' "and the representative office of the 'Edinaya Rossiya' (United Russia) Party in Simferopol on April 14 and 18, 2014." Alexander Kolchenko is charged with involvement in a terrorist community and commission of a terror act. Both defendants state political motives of their case.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Gennady Afanasiev was tortured during the investigation. This was declared on August 3 by the advocate Alexander Popkov, who had visited his client in the SIZO (pre-trial prison).
"The Chirnij's refusal to testify and a courageous act of Afanasiev, who said that he had given earlier testimonies under pressure, speak for themselves. I'm sure that Oleg Sentsov and Alexander Kolchenko are innocent of what they are charged with. But the main thing is that now Afanasiev badly needs an advocate and support of rights defenders and Ombudspersons both of the Rostov Region, and at the federal level," Oleg Kudrin, a Rostov journalist, who is observing the trial, told in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
"The fact that Chirnij and Afanasiev have refused to give false evidence against the so-called 'accomplices', suggests that their testimonies had been really knocked out of them, as it is often done – through violence and psychological terror. Now I am afraid of what will happen to Chirnij and Afanasiev after such bold steps of them. I'd like to hope that local rights defenders will be able to keep their eyes on that as much as they can," said Roman Leksikov, a member of the students' trade union.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.