Sochi Olympics countdown sees Russia jailing second prisoner of conscience this week

Headline Title: Sochi Olympics countdown: Second prisoner of conscience jailed in days 05 February 2014 In a brief and blatantly unfair closed trial at which no lawyer was present, Russian authorities this morning sentenced environmental activist Igor Kharchenko to five days in detention for purportedly “resisting legitimate police orders”, Amnesty International said as it named him the country’s second new prisoner of conscience since Monday. Kharchenko, of the Russian NGO Environmental Watch for North Caucasus (Ecologicheskaya Vakhta po Severnomu Kavkazu), was arrested…

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