HRC "Memorial" recognizes as political prisoner a Ukrainian arrested in Kuban

Alexander Marchenko, a citizen of Ukraine, accused of purchasing devices for an antiaircraft guided missile system and kept under arrest at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) in Krasnodar, is being persecuted for political reasons, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" announces today.

On December 17, 2018, Alexander Marchenko was detained by the secret services of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (known as DNR). He was kept at the SIZO for two months and then handed over to the Russian secret services in the Rostov Region. A criminal case against Alexander Marchenko was not instituted until April 30, 2019, when he was suspected of plotting the purchase and illegal movement of military products from the territory of Russia. He faces up to seven years of imprisonment.

The defence of Alexander Marchenko insists he is not guilty. According to the defendant's advocate, Alexander Marchenko was kept in torture conditions at the SIZO in the DNR, and on the Russian-Ukrainian border, he was forced to incriminate himself. The HRC "Memorial" notes that for a long period of time, no criminal case has been instituted against Alexander Marchenko.

"We believe that the Alexander Marchenko's deprivation of liberty is motivated, on the one hand, by the ongoing anti-Ukrainian campaign of the Russian authorities, and, on the other hand, by their desire to substantiate the thesis of large-scale external threats to the country's security with new artificial 'spy' cases," the human rights defenders note in their statement.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 3, 2019 at 11:00 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.