07:53, 3 May 2016

USA urges Russian authorities to release Sergey Reznik

ergey Reznik. Photo from his personal page at Vk.com

John Kirby, the spokesman of the US State Department has called on Russian authorities to release the Rostov journalist Sergey Reznik, who was sentenced in January 2015 to three years in prison.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Sergey Reznik, known for his critical publications, was accused of insulting a state official, false denunciation and commercial bribery. On January 22, 2015, the Leninsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don sentenced Reznik to three years in prison, with the account of the punishment, imposed in November 2013, and by then served by the journalist. On May 13, 2015, the Rostov Regional Court reduced his term by a month. On February 2 this year, Reznik was denied the conditional early relief (CER).

"We want to highlight today a man named Sergey Reznik, a journalist and blogger from Rostov-on-Don, who had been in prisoned since November 2013... We call on the Russian government to release Sergey Reznik immediately," the RBC quotes Mr Kirby.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.