A Russian military court is set today to announce its verdict against a Ukrainian filmmaker who faces a lengthy prison term on terror charges in a trial decried by the West.
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The court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don said Oleg Sentsov had set up a terror cell in the Crimean Peninsula, which Russian Federation annexed previous year, and was plotting attacks.
Another defendant in the case, Alexander Kolchenko, received ten years in prison. The defendants were also charged with attempting to blowup a statue of Lenin in Simferopol on May 9, 2014.
In a defiant act, two Ukrainian men sang their country’s national anthem in a Russian court Tuesday moments after they were sentenced to prison.
He denies the charges against him and his cause has been taken up by other directors, including Mike Leigh, Stephen Daldry and Pedro Almodovar.
“The whole trial was created to send a message”.
Amnesty global has condemned Russia’s handling of the case, which it says has been marred by multiple irregularities including allegations of torture of both the accused and prosecution witnesses. Prosecutors originally asked for 23 years for Mr Sentsov and 12 for Mr Kolchenko. He was reported in custody in Moscow less than a week later.
The prosecution of Sentsov and another Ukrainian activist, 26-year-old Oleksandr Kolchenko, has been widely criticized as retaliation for their outspoken opposition to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Zvyagintsev, whose recent film “Leviathan” was awarded a Golden Globe, wrote a letter published in Novaya Gazeta daily that it was “monstrous to jail a young man, a promising filmmaker”.
“Hang in there, Oleg”, he said. He’s most noted for his 2011 film “Gamer“, about a young Ukrainian boy who spent his time playing video games, trying to escape reality.
The government of the UK said the trial was clearly politically motivated.
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Britain has described the trial as politically motivated with Europe minister David Lidington saying the charges were “disproportionate” and that the two men did not have access to a fair trial.
