The Supreme Court of Russia on Sept. 12 rejected an appeal by Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko of his 12-year prison sentence on charges of spying, Roman Tsymbaliuk, a journalist for Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency, has reported from Moscow.
Sushchenko was a correspondent for Ukraine’s Ukrinform agency based in France. He was detained on Sept. 30, 2016, in Moscow and later sentenced to 12 years in prison for spying, which he denies.
Russian courts are not independent of the Kremlin, and often pass judgements slanted in favor of the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian diplomats and human rights activists say the case was politically motivated – one of a series of sham trials launched by Russia against Ukrainians who opposed its annexation of Crimea and invasion in Ukraine’s east.
The Supreme Court of Russia reviewed the appeal filed by Sushchenko’s lawyer Mark Feygin and approved the decision of Moscow City Court on the journalist’s case, which means Sushchenko will have to serve 12 years in a Russian jail.
According to Tsymbaliuk, Sushchenko said he didn’t agree with the court’s decision. He also said he would continue to fight for his release and would file an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, the international court established by the European Convention on Human Rights.
Sushchenko is one of about 70 Ukrainian political prisoners kept in jails in Russia and Russia-occupied Crimea. One of them, Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, sentenced to 20 years on the charges of plotting terrorism, has been on the hunger strike for 122 days, demanding that Russia release all Ukrainian hostages.
Sentsov was convicted after a sham trial, with the two main witnesses against him later retracting their evidence, saying it had been given under duress.
Many people around the world involved in the film industry have demanded Sentsov’s release. Most recently the jury of the Venice Film Festival, including director Guillermo Del Toro, actor Christoph Waltz and actress Naomi Watts released a statement calling for clemency for Oleg Sentsov.
Volodymyr Balukh, another Ukrainian activist jailed in Crimea, is on the 178th day of a hunger strike.
