Grebenshchikov took part in the Marathon of the letters of Amnesty International

The famous musician Boris Grebenshchikov took part in the Marathon of the letters of Amnesty International, according to Facebook to a human rights organization. The musician "with special enthusiasm" signed a petition demanding to free the "swamp prisoners."

Grebenshchikov met with the head of the Russian branch of Amnesty International Sergei Nikitin before the vernissage of his exhibition. The leader of the Aquarium group carefully got acquainted with the five petitions of the organization and signed everything. Grebenshchikov supports Amnesty International for more than 10 years.

The Marathon of the letters of Amnesty International in support of the victims of human rights violations by tradition takes place in December. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world write the words of support and congratulations on the New Year unfamiliar to them, and the authorities make the requirements to immediately release prisoners of conscience or take measures to protect the victims of arbitrariness.

12 cases are being prepared for the marathon, of which the national branches of the organization select several. Also in each country the terms of collection of signatures are set. In some countries, 24 hours are allocated to collect signatures. In Russia, they will be collected for a month. Nikitin explained this with the complexity of the organization of a daily action in conditions of pressure from the authorities.

In 2013, Amnesty International activists chose five stories from five countries in Russia: Ethiopia, Belarus, Myanmar, Turkey and Russia. The petition in Russia is the requirement to free three defendants in the “swamp business”: Mikhail Kosenko, Artem Saveelov and Vladimir Akimenkov.

The petition of the "Prisoners of Bolotnaya" included most European countries, as well as the USA and Canada.

Last year, AI activists from 20 countries gathered about two million signatures under calls to achieve justice for prisoners of conscience as part of a marathon. This year, the "International Amnesty" in Russia plans to collect about one thousand signatures. This is very little, Nikitin believes, but you need to understand in which an atmosphere of intimidation the action is held.

On October 3, Amnesty International assigned the status of prisoners of conscience to Akimenkov, Savelov and Kosenko . Human rights activists concluded that at least three "swamp prisoners" unfairly deprived of freedom "for the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression of opinions." Nikitin emphasized that the organization did not find evidence of the participation of Akimenkov, Savelov and Kosenko in violent actions. “We are calling for the unconditional liberation of these three people, as well as those who were not involved in violent actions and did not violate the law,” Nikitin said. “We do not exclude that other defendants in the case can be recognized as prisoners of conscience. The representative of Amnesty International can be present in almost all courts. Disorders are allowed during the trial.”

Amnesty International has announced the beginning of the international campaign in defense of the Swamp Prisoners. The organization urged its supporters around the world to send appeals to the prosecutor general of Russia with the demand of a fair court in the "swamp case".