MOSCOW. Sept 3 (Interfax) - At least 30 Russian citizens are being held in foreign prisons for political reasons, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said.
"In my opinion, to say the least about 30 Russian prisoners of conscience are being imprisoned abroad. They are those who did not commit in our view a publicly dangerous wrongdoing, and are brought to criminal liability under the motives of not recognizing Crimea's status, or due to sanctions," Moskalkova told reporters on Monday.
The ombudsman called RIA Novosti Ukraine journalist Kirill Vyshynsky, Volunteers of Victory Olen Odnovol, servicemen Alexander Baranov and Maxim Odintsov, Alexei Sedikov imprisoned on the charge of terrorism among Russian prisoners of conscience convicted in Ukraine, and pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, businessman Viktor Bout, student Maria Butina and Roman Seleznev, a son of the Russian State Duma deputy, among those convicted in the United States.
"We believe that here the political component in decision-making was prioritized," Moskalkova said.
She said that she "is not ready to answer the question" about how many political prisoners, who are convicted only for their protest against state authorities, are being held in Russia.
"One way or another, when I looked into the case of political prisoners, there were offenses in their corpuses delicti, which were included in the Criminal Code. In my opinion, in several cases those corpuses delicti should be verified by the prosecutor's office in order to find out whether it was a formal moment to conceal the discontent by criticizing the state bodies' work," the human rights commissioner said.
The persecution of journalist Aigul Makhmutova, who was convicted for a fraud ten years ago, could be based on political reasons, Moskalkova said, noting that the Supreme Court has later overturned the court ruling, because it was based on her articles about illegal housing construction, but the investigation is still underway.