Anton Chechin's wife expressed concerns for his life and health in prison

The Georgian Ombudsman refused to present his position to the court on the case of Anton Chechin, who was sentenced to eight and a half years in a drug case. Chechin is feeling unwell and has not undergone medical examinations for a long time, although doctors have prescribed neurosurgery, said his wife Manana Samkharadze.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" reported, on September 2, a court in Tbilisi sentenced Russian citizen Anton Chechin to eight years and six months in prison on charges of drug possession. Chechin claims that the drugs were planted on him for participating in pro-European protests. After the verdict, the bailiffs violently evicted the support group from the building.

In his final statement, Anton Chechin refused to plead guilty, noting that “the time spent in prison, separation from his wife and parents” will not compensate him even if the prosecutor's office drops the charges. “I will fight until I am acquitted,” Formula quotes him as saying.

Chechin added that the practice of prosecuting opposition members on falsified drug charges is widespread in different countries and, “unfortunately, in Georgia too.” The authorities resort to it when they feel “in an unstable situation,” the activist noted.

Since December 2024, when mass continuous protests began in Georgia, at least six participants in the demonstrations have been arrested on drug possession charges, including three Russian citizens (including Chechin). All the accused gave the same testimony that the drugs were planted on them, and the court has already acquitted two of them due to insufficient evidence, according to a statement from one of the human rights organizations in connection with Chechin’s sentence.

The Georgian ombudsman refused to provide the court with his position as an “impartial advisor” in Chechin’s case, although this was recommended, noted the convicted man’s wife, Manana Samkharadze.

According to his wife, despite his confident performance in court, Chechin is depressed and does not believe in the possibility of his imminent release. Samkharadze fears for the health of her husband, for whom doctors have long prescribed surgery.

“Even though he was prepared one way or another (for a guilty verdict), I still can’t imagine what he felt after hearing that sentence. I’m afraid that the pain in his heart will become even worse, that the stress will make the cyst grow even bigger. We don’t know what condition it’s in right now. Even if he’s released in a few months, won’t it be too late for his operation?” - she wrote on her Facebook page*.

One of the Georgian political prisoners, Revaz (Rezo) Kiknadze, accused of violence during protests, said after Chechin's sentence that he would not attend the September 3 court hearing where the sentence for him and ten other participants in pro-European demonstrations was to be announced.

“Anton's eight years were not easy for me, I didn't even feel that we were facing two years. We don't deserve two years, or even two days. I can endure twenty years if the country needs it, but such arbitrariness cannot be perceived as normal,” Interpressnews quotes the activist's letter.

Earlier, on August 14, Kiknadze spoke out in support of Chechin and two other Russians arrested on similar charges. He suggested that they were being prepared to be "sacrificed." "What is the point of my struggle if someone is being unfairly sacrificed, even a citizen of another country? Justice should be the same for everyone. And these people fought there as best they could, fought against the Putin regime," he wrote.

"Caucasian Knot" published a report "The Main Thing About the Persecution of Protesters in Georgia". The Caucasian Knot collected materials about the parliamentary elections and the protests that followed them on the page "Elections in Georgia-2024".

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