WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ARMENIA - news journal UPDATE - (en) Armenia, Armenia: A picket in support of Maxim Butkevich was held in Yerevan (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On October 5, in Yerevan, opposite the Russian Embassy, a picket of

solidarity with the Ukrainian anarchist, anti-fascist and human rights
activist Maksym Butkevich was held. According to our subscribers,
libertarian activists from the local initiative group "Left-wing
Community in Yerevan" expressed their protest and solidarity with the
Ukrainian comrade. They demanded the immediate release of not only
Maksym, but also all anarchists, anti-fascists and other political
prisoners from Russian prisons. ---- The picket lasted exactly one hour,
and the event took place without any attention or intervention from the
police.

"Left-wing Community in Yerevan" consists of political emigrants of
various left and libertarian views. The group is gradually gaining
momentum and holding protests in Yerevan.

Let us recall that in 2022, Maksym Butkevich volunteered for the front
and was captured by the Russians in the Luhansk region. On March 10,
2023, a court in the self-proclaimed "LPR" sentenced him to 13 years in
prison, and the appeal and cassation upheld the sentence. Butkevich was
able to talk to a lawyer under an agreement only during the appeal to
the First Court of Appeal in Moscow, which the defendant attended via
video link from the Luhansk pre-trial detention center.

According to the investigation, on June 4, 2022, while in Severodonetsk,
he wounded two women by firing a grenade launcher at the entrance to a
residential building. During the cassation appeal in the Supreme Court
of the Russian Federation, Maksim stated that he had been engaged in
protecting the rights of citizens all his life, and the alleged crime
contradicted this. On June 4, he was not in Severodonetsk at all.
Butkevich incriminated himself and gave a confession, since he, like
many other Ukrainian prisoners of war, was promised that after
cooperating with the investigation and a quick conviction, he would be
quickly exchanged. In the event of a refusal to confess, Maksim was
promised to use "methods of physical influence", some of which were
"demonstrated" to him.

Maxim's words are confirmed by information from the publication "Grati"
about his correspondence with various people, as well as the billing of
Butkevich's phone provided by the lawyer and the lawyer's questioning of
the French woman who met with him in Kiev on June 7, 2022. The Supreme
Court of the Russian Federation refused to attach the latter materials
to the case and take them into account at all .

Address for letters and postcards: Butkevich Maxim Aleksandrovich, born
07/16/1977, Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation for
the LPR, IK-2, st. Mira, 20, Vakhrushevo, Krasny Luch, 294562

https://avtonom.org/news/v-erevane-proshel-piket-v-podderzhku-maksima-butkevicha
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