More than a hundred Russian doctors signed an open letter published on Saturday demanding the immediate release of an artist sentenced to seven years in prison for protesting the war in Ukraine.
The letter calling for Sasha Skochilenko’s release was addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and warned that a prison sentence could lead to a “significant deterioration” of the 33-year-old artist’s health.
Skochilenko has been diagnosed with “a number of serious chronic diseases that require appropriate medical supervision and a special diet,” the letter said.
The same letter mentions the doctors’ outrage at the “manifest injustice of the verdict”.
A Russian court convicted the artist on Thursday of exchanging price tags in supermarkets with anti-war messages and sentenced her to seven years in prison, in a context of increasing suppression of freedom of expression.
Skochilenko was arrested in her native St. Petersburg in April 2022 and charged with spreading false information about the military after replacing small price tags with ones denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The Russian army bombed an art school in Mariupol. About 400 people hid from the bombardment,” one of these reports said.
Another said: “Russian recruits are being sent to Ukraine. The lives of our children are the price of this war.”
A supermarket customer who found the messages reported them to authorities, leading to legal action.
Skochilenko’s arrest came about a month after authorities passed a law criminalizing any public statement about the war that deviates from the Kremlin’s official line.
The legislation has been used to implement a strategy of widespread repression against opposition politicians, human rights activists and ordinary citizens who criticize the Kremlin.
Skochilenko, 33, did not deny that the price tags had been replaced but rejected the charge of deliberately spreading false information.
Her lawyer, Yana Nepovinnova, warns that the artist’s intention was not to denigrate the army, but rather to stop the fighting.
Independent Russian news portal Mediazona reported that Skochilenko said in his closing statement to the court that the case against him was “strange and ridiculous.”
“Everyone sees and knows that it is not a terrorist you are trying. You are not trying an extremist. You are not trying a political activist either. You are trying a pacifist,” Skochilenko said, speaking to the judge in a courtroom. filled with sympathizers.
Skochilenko has been in pre-trial detention for almost 19 months and suffers from health problems that require regular treatment.
While being held in St. Petersburg, she managed to be accompanied by doctors, but her family fears that the artist will not receive health care if she is sent to a prison in a remote location.
Russia’s most prominent human rights organization – and winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize – Memorial, has declared Skochilenko a political prisoner.
Nearly 750 people face criminal charges in Russia for their anti-war views and more than 8,100 people have been charged with defaming the military, which carries a fine or light prison sentence.
Source: DN
