Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic Jiri Sestak, as well as heads of three committees, Senators Frantisek Bublan, Vaclav Hampl and Zdenek Papousek, have sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin calling for the release of Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov from a Russian colony, the Russian service of the Radio Praha has reported.
“Oleg Sentsov has recently been forced to resort to an extreme form of protest and has gone on a hunger strike. He declared it not for himself, but for the release of other political prisoners. Since this requirement can hardly be fulfilled in the foreseeable future, his fate causes justified concerns,” reads the letter.
Czech deputies in a letter to Putin recalled “about their own historical experience, which the Czech people received during the existence of the totalitarian system of communist Czechoslovakia.”
“Any corrected insult caused by the authorities to an individual reduces the future tension and decreases the disease of a given society in its very foundations. Therefore, the release of Oleg Sentsov is a remedy for your entire country,” the letter says.
The senators expressed hope that Putin “will find time in his schedule to look for justice” for Sentsov and other human destinies.
“The letter to President Vladimir Putin was written as an attempt to help a person in his extremely difficult and dramatic situation. We are convinced, based on our own historical experience, that such support is important to people who resist the autocratic regime,” Sestak told Radio Praha.
