30/09/2020 (Agence Europe) – On Wednesday 30 September, the EEAS spokesperson denounced the increase, on the previous day, of the prison sentence from 3 years and 6 months to 13 years for “violence of a sexual nature” of the historian and human rights defender Yuri Dmitriev (see EUROPE 12535/31). Other charges for which he had been acquitted by the first instance court were referred back for reconsideration. “The prosecution was triggered by his human rights work and his research on political repression in the Soviet period” the spokesman said, calling for his immediate and unconditional release, also on health grounds. According to him, “this unsubstantiated and unjust verdict will inevitably contribute to a worsening of the human rights situation and shrinking space for civil society and independent voices in Russia”. (CG)