Ivan Petrov
Two Russian sailors were sentenced to 253 years in prison in Greece. This is reported by “Interfax” with reference to the vice-president of the Russian division of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights Ivan Melnikov.
The Greek court found Konstantin Semyonov and Ivan Voznikovtsev guilty of human trafficking and transportation of illegal migrants. Ivan Melnikov explained that the term turned out to be so long due to the fact that the Russians received from 7 to 12 years for each migrant – there were about 20 of them on one boat. Additional terms were added for other crimes.
The sailors did not admit their guilt. They claim that they originally had to deal with the transportation of tourists in Turkey. However, their yacht broke down all the time – and then Semenov and Voznikovtsev asked the employer for help. He agreed, but he did not send a boat with spare parts to the appointed place, but ships with illegal immigrants. “[The Russians] were threatened with violence, and our guys were forced to let illegal immigrants on board,” the human rights activist said.
He added that the court did not pay attention to the statements of the sailors, and the appointed lawyer did not even communicate with the Russians. Relatives and friends of the convicts have already started collecting money to pay for lawyers and other needs in social networks.
At the end of February, Alexander Illarionov and Andrei Zhuravlev were sentenced to 395 years in prison. Russian sailors were detained in the fall of 2019 on charges of organizing illegal migration.
