Gorinov was the first duly elected opposition politician unconditionally convicted for criticizing the invasion.
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Russian judge Olesya Mendeleeva for her role in the detention and conviction of former Moscow lawmaker Alexei Gorinov for his opposition to the war in Ukraine, the US Treasury Department announced. TASR informs about it according to the reports of the agencies DPA and Reuters.
The US State Department said the judge ordered Gorinov’s “arbitrary detention” and sentenced him to seven years in prison in July 2022 for his opposition to the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. In custody, he was physically abused and refused to provide him with medical care.
Gorinov (63), who served as a municipal deputy before the war, was the first duly elected opposition politician unconditionally convicted for criticizing the invasion.
He was convicted of spreading false information about the Russian military after he told a Moscow council meeting on March 15, 2022 that Ukrainian children were dying every day because of the invasion and called for a minute’s silence to honor its victims.
“Mendeleev, who is known for handing down long and severe sentences, convicted Gorinov of knowingly spreading false information about the Russian military, making her the first female judge in Russia to find a defendant guilty … of such an act,” the US Department of Defense said in a statement. his statement.
In November of this year, a Russian military court sentenced Gorinov to another three years in prison for advocating terrorism. The court also ordered his transfer to a facility with a stricter regime.
On Tuesday, the USA also imposed sanctions on Iranian and Russian organizations, which it accused of trying to interfere in this year’s presidential elections in the USA.
