On Monday October 14, Russian justice sentenced Frenchman Laurent Vinatier to three years in prison, detained since June and accused of not having registered as a “foreign agent”. His lawyers announce their intention to appeal.
The court decided to “ find Mr. Vinatier guilty » and “ sentence him to a prison term of three years “, declared judge Natalia Tcheprassova. This researcher specializing in the post-Soviet space was employed on Russian soil by the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss NGO which mediates in conflicts outside official diplomatic circuits. “ My wife is Russian, my friends are Russian. I lived a Russian life », he recalled this October 14 in front of the judges, saying he fell in love with the Russia twenty years ago, during a trip to Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
The Frenchman, dressed in a light blue shirt, appeared stoic as the verdict was announced. He was not allowed to speak after this sentence to the press present in court. Laurent Vinatier’s Russian lawyers, Oleg Bessonov and Alexeï Sinitsine, immediately deplored to journalists a ” harsh verdict ». « We will, of course, appeal “, they announced.
Failure to register as a “foreign agent”
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