Ukraine continues persecution of communist Andrei Sokolov

The trial has been conducted with numerous irregularities. During several sessions which Andrei Sokolov was supposed to attend, he was not even brought to the courtroom. The trial sessions were held by video conference from prison.

On Wednesday March 2, Ukrainian authorities began moving him to the court for the next session of the trial, scheduled for Friday, March 11, in Berdyansk, Zaporozhye region, a town on the Sea of ​​Azov, 60 km from Mariupol (eastern Ukraine). The transfer is being carried out in stages, although he could be brought directly through Zaporozhye, or they could try him somewhere closer.

Andrei was arrested at a Ukrainian checkpoint on December 16, 2014, which the prosecution does not even list as the place of detention. For 13 days he was held in a basement illegally, where he was repeatedly tortured. He was officially arrested later, on December 29, 2014, in Mariupol, in the building of the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine). “This is already a basis to cancel all the charges,” says Andrei.

Not only during the transfer, but also in jail, the inmates are barely fed. Prisoners are beaten and subjected to physical and psychological abuse.

Andrei is a convinced communist, a revolutionary and opponent of the Yeltsin and Putin regimes. In Russia, he spent a total of nine years in prison for political reasons. It is for this reason that, as a true person of the left, he strongly supported the insurrection in Donbass from the beginning.

In the winter of 2014, as a self-taught engineer, he came to the Donetsk People’s Republic to help the country establish vital production. By chance he stopped at a checkpoint, where he was captured.

Please support Andrei and disseminate information about his trial.

Long live socialist Novorossiya!

Freedom to Andrei Sokolov and all political prisoners!

Down with the fascist government in Kiev!

Buenos Aires, March 4, 2016

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Translated by Greg Butterfield