New case against Sochi activist Vladimir Atamanchuk reaches court

Vladimir Atamanchuk, an activist from Sochi, is serving a sentence within a slander case as a janitor at the hospital where he had worked as a doctor before retirement. A new case against Atamanchuk for contempt of the court will be heard on November 23. The pensioner hopes that the court and the victim will accept his apologies for his emotional statements.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that a case of contempt of the court was opened against Atamanchuk after a complaint from the victim in the slander case. The activist was not informed of the exact words that became the basis for his criminal prosecution; the absence of this information in the decision to initiate the case is contrary to the laws, lawyers believe. Atamanchuk himself treats the new case to be a continuation of the persecution for his pacifist position.

According to Atamanchuk, as part of his community works, every day he sweeps for free the hospital yard, where he had worked as a doctor before retirement. The pensioner believes that he was deliberately sent there to serve his sentence so that his colleagues "would look at him like a criminal," but his former colleagues and patients treat his work with great respect and his situation with understanding.

According to Vladimir, while working, he thinks bitterly about political prisoners who are in prison for their statements and beliefs; they are tortured and deprived of medical care. "I understand what a happy person I am that I sweep the courtyard and don't sit in jail; and no one tortures me," he has added.