22,5 years for treason: Memorial recognizes Novovoronezh NPP employee as a political prisoner
Human Rights Center "Memorial" считает criminal case against Alexandra Dimitrenko fabricated.
In their statement, human rights activists emphasize that even before the war, the Novovoronezh NPP employee was interested in local history and studied his region's connections to Ukrainian history and culture (including speaking Ukrainian since childhood). Among the friends with whom he continued to correspond after the outbreak of full-scale war with Ukraine were Maidan activists and veterans of the fighting in Donbas.
According to Memorial, it was Dimitrenko's anti-war position, openly expressed on social media, that became the pretext for falsifying the criminal case.
"NeMoscow" already toldIn May 2022, FSB officers broke into Dimitrenko's home. During the search, they hit him in the face, put a bag over his head, and forced him to speak on camera about his alleged plans to fight on the side of Ukraine.
The detainee later claimed that explosives, a wad of dollars, a Ukrainian passport, and a telephone, through which he allegedly received instructions from Ukraine, were planted on him.
Memorial emphasizes that the court rejected the lawyer's multiple requests to take fingerprints from the seized items.
Dimitrenko's trial was held behind closed doors: even his parents were barred from the sentencing. He was found guilty of treason and plotting a terrorist attack on a railway.