HRC "Memorial" recognizes Sergey Litvinov as political prisoner

The verdict against Sergey Litvinov, sentenced in the Rostov Region in the criminal case of robbery, was based on contradictory evidence. There are reasons to believe that a citizen of Ukraine was subjected to torture, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" states.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in August 2014, Sergey Litvinov was arrested in the Tarasovsky District Hospital of the Rostov Region. On April 20, the court of the Rostov Region found Sergey Litvinov guilty on the charge of robbery in the south-east of Ukraine and sentenced him to 8.5 years of imprisonment in a high-security penal colony.

"According to the verdict, in the summer of 2014, in the village of Konstantinovka of the Stanichno-Lugansk District, Sergey Litvinov with two unidentified Ukrainian law enforcers stole Opel Frontera and UAZ-452 cars from a citizen of the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, according to the investigators, the defendants threatened the Russian citizen with Kalashnikovs submachine guns and beat him," states the release of the HRC "Memorial", received today by the "Caucasian Knot".

The human rights defenders note that, according to the Ukrainian side, the victim was not on the territory of Ukraine in the summer of 2014. "One of the allegedly stolen cars was deregistered in 1997, and another car does not belong to the victim. The damage to health is confirmed only by the conclusion of the examination stating that his nose was once broken. We believe it is unacceptable to pronounce a guilty verdict based on such contradictory evidence of poor quality," emphasizes the statement made by the HRC "Memorial".

According to the HRC "Memorial", "there are also substantial grounds to believe that Sergey Litvinov was subjected to torture and psychological pressure."

The human rights defenders treated Sergey Litvinov as "a hostage to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict" and demanded to immediately release him.

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