Name Oleg Sentsov Role Filmmaker | Movies Gaamer, Kai | |
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Children Alina Sentsov, Vlad Sentsov People also search for Olexandr Kolchenko, Olga Zhurzhenko | ||
De veelbelovende toekomst van filmmaker oleg sentsov
Oleg Gennadyevich Sentsov (Ukrainian: Олег Геннадійович Сенцов, Oleh Hennadiovych Sentsov) is a Ukrainian filmmaker and writer, best known for his 2011 film Gamer. He was arrested in Crimea and convicted to 20 years in jail by Russian court on charges of plotting terrorism acts. The conviction was widely described as fabricated or exaggerated.
Contents
- De veelbelovende toekomst van filmmaker oleg sentsov
- Russia puts ukraine film director oleg sentsov on trial for terror world news7 tamil
- Biography
- Arrest and detention
- Trial
- Ukraine
- Russia
- International
- References
Russia puts ukraine film director oleg sentsov on trial for terror world news7 tamil
Biography
Sentsov was born 13 July 1976 in Simferopol, Ukrainian SSR. He was an economics student in Kyiv and took courses in film directing and screenwriting in Moscow. His first two short movies were A Perfect Day for Bananafish (2008) and The Horn of a Bull (2009). Gamer, his first feature, debuted at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2012. Its success in this and other festivals helped him secure funding for the forthcoming feature Rhino, production on which was postponed due to his work with the Euromaidan protest movement. It was scheduled to begin shooting in the summer of 2014.
After the November 2013 breakout of the Euromaidan protests Sentsov became an activist of "AutoMaidan" and during the 2014 Crimean crisis he helped deliver food and supplies to Ukrainian servicemen trapped in their Crimean bases. Sentsov stated that he did not recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea.
Sentsov has two teenage children.
Arrest and detention
Sentsov was arrested on 11 May 2014 in Crimea on suspicion of "plotting terrorist acts". With Gennady Afanasyev, Alexei Chirnigo, and Alexander Kolchenko, he became one of four Ukrainian citizens held by Russia's Federal Security Service, who accused them of seeking to carry out terrorist attacks on bridges, power lines, and public monuments in the Crimean cities Simferopol, Yalta, and Sevastopol. These charges are punishable with up to 20 years in prison.
After holding Sentsov without charges for three weeks, the Federal Security Service accused the four Ukrainians of being "part of a terrorist community, to carry out explosions with home-made devices on May 9, 2014 near the Eternal Flame memorial and Lenin monument in Simferopol and to set fire to the offices of the Russian Community of Crimea public organization and the United Russia party branch in Simferopol on April 14 and April 18, 2014". Sentsov, Afanasyev, Chirnigo and Kolchenko were also accused of membership in Ukraine's nationalist paramilitary group, Right Sector, a claim that both Sentsov and Right Sector denied. Russian prosecutors stated that Sentsov confessed to the terrorist plots. But the filmmaker and his lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, who defended Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, denied this and he and Sentsov himself have stated that Sentsov was beaten and threatened with rape to force his confession. According to Sentsov's lawyers, investigators refused to open a case on his allegations of torture, suggesting that his bruises were self-inflicted and that he was keen on sado-masochism.
Starting on 19 May 2014, Sentsov was detained in Moscow's Lefortovo prison. On 26 June 2014 Russia's presidential council for human rights appealed to Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin to review the circumstances surrounding the arrests of Sentsov and Kolchenko. A reply, posted on the council's website, stated prosecutors found "no grounds" for altering the detention of either suspect. On 7 July 2014 Sentsov's arrest was extended to 11 October. In October 2014 his arrest was again extended to 11 January 2015.
Ukrainian authorities were banned by their Russian counterparts to contact or help Sentsov. According to Sentsov he has been deprived of his citizenship of Ukraine.
Trial
On 21 July 2015, Sentsov went on trial for terrorism in Russia among international outcry and an open letter by prominent European film directors Pedro Almodóvar, Ken Loach, Béla Tarr, and Wim Wenders.
The main witness for the prosecution, Gennady Afanasyev, retracted his testimony in court on 31 July, saying it was given under duress.
On 25 August 2015, a Russian court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in prison. He was then imprisoned in Yakutsk. Sentsov is currently serving his sentence in the Russian federal subject Sakha Republic. He declines visits by his family after observing, that once the visitors had left, other prisoners "fall into terrible deep depression". In October 2016 Russia refused to extradite Sentsov to Ukraine, claiming that he is a Russian citizen.
Ukraine
According to the Ombudsperson of Ukraine Valeriya Lutkovska, the decision of the Rostov court towards Ukrainians Oleh Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko constitutes discrimination on national origin.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry, in a statement on its website, called the trial "a judicial farce".
Russia
On 26 June 2014 Russia's Presidential Council for Human Rights appealed to Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin to review the circumstances surrounding the arrests of Sentsov and fellow activist Oleksandr Kolchenko. A reply, posted on the council's website, stated prosecutors found "no grounds" for altering the detention of either suspect.
More than 60 members of the Russian PEN center and several major Russian filmmakers expressed their support, including Nikita Mikhalkov, Andrey Zvyagintsev and Alexander Sokurov.
The Human Rights Center Memorial has declared that Sentsov and Kolchenko are political prisoners in Russia.
International
The European Union and the United States condemned Sentsov's detention and called for his release.
The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini stated that "the EU considers the case to be in breach of international law and elementary standards of justice."
Western governments, Amnesty International, and European Film Academy deputy chairman Mike Downey described the proceedings as a show trial.
The United States called the sentencing a "miscarriage of justice", stating that "Mr. Sentsov and Mr. Kolchenko were targeted by authorities because of their opposition to Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea." Saying that Sentsov and Kolchenko were "taken hostage on Ukrainian territory", it called upon the Russian Federation to "implement the commitments it made in signing the Minsk agreements by immediately releasing Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Nadia Savchenko, and all other remaining hostages".
The German government's special envoy for human rights and humanitarian affairs said in a statement that he was "shaken" by the severity of the sentences and urged Russia to comply with Council of Europe norms for the humane treatment of prisoners.
European directors Agnieszka Holland, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, and Pedro Almodóvar co-signed a 10 June 2014 letter by the European Film Academy to Russian authorities, demanding that the charges against Sentsov be dropped and the allegations of torture investigated. Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf dedicated his acceptance of the 2015 Robert Bresson Prize of the Venice Film Festival to Sentsov, calling the conviction a "major injustice" and the sentence "a move to intimidate all Russian society, especially the intellectuals and artists".