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Public Pressure Mounting On Russian Authorities To Reconsider Harsh 'Network' Case Verdicts
What we have here are 7 anti-fascist individuals who were arrested, tortured, and sentenced to long prison terms in a case most European legal analysts agree was rigged by the FSB security service.
History informs us that ~26 million Russians perished during WWII in a fight to the death with fascists. The Russian people are not happy with what is happening here (bum rap/harsh sentences).
The question is, why is the Putin government sending a very clear message to Russian society to be cordial to fascists?
2/18/20
Hardly a day goes by without a new expression of support in Russia for seven men who were given harsh prison sentences last week in a case that many observers in Russia and abroad contend was fabricated by the Federal Security Service (FSB). On February 18, a group of more than 200 animators issued an open letter declaring "we cannot remain indifferent to the fact that young people are being punished for crimes they did not commit." One day earlier, several hundred Russian artists, museum workers, and gallery curators across the country also issued an open letter "angrily condemning" the convictions and, particularly, the alleged use of torture by investigators in the case. The letter called for the convictions to be thrown out and the case, widely known as "the Network," re-investigated from the beginning. On February 16, several dozen members of the Association of Independent Public Monitors, a group of lawyers that monitors law enforcement and prisons, issued a similar statement "demanding an objective investigation into torture in the Network case." These letters of protest echo like-minded initiatives by scientists.
All these reactions and more came in the first week after a district court in the provincial city of Penza on February 10 sentenced the seven defendants to prison terms ranging from six to 18 years after convicting them of belonging to a terrorist organization and plotting attacks aimed at destabilizing the country. The case was known as "the Network" because that is the name investigators imposed on the group that they claimed the now-convicted suspects were involved in; all seven men have said that no such organization existed. Several of the men say they were beaten and subjected to electric-shock torture to extract confessions. Human rights groups and activists contend that the case was fabricated by the state to send a signal to members of society who express political views that run counter to the positions of the government. President Vladimir Putin has said repeatedly that he cannot interfere in court cases, but Russian courts are widely considered to lack independence, and rights groups and government opponents contend that the outcome of many high-profile cases is decided in the Kremlin.
What we have here are 7 anti-fascist individuals who were arrested, tortured, and sentenced to long prison terms in a case most European legal analysts agree was rigged by the FSB security service.
History informs us that ~26 million Russians perished during WWII in a fight to the death with fascists. The Russian people are not happy with what is happening here (bum rap/harsh sentences).
The question is, why is the Putin government sending a very clear message to Russian society to be cordial to fascists?