Watchdog

Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who is behind bars in Russia, has called on Ukrainians not to fight for his release "at any price, as it would not bring the victory nearer."

In a letter obtained by RFE/RL on August 22, Sentsov wrote that the only thing he and others Ukraine considers political prisoners jailed in Russia can do for their homeland is "to hold on."

"Be aware that we are not your weak point. If our destiny is to become nails in the lid of the tyrant's coffin, then yes, I would like to be such a nail. Just remember, that nail will never bend," wrote Sentsov, whose case has become a cause celebre in Ukraine.

Crimea’s Russia-backed authorities convicted Sentsov of conspiring to commit terrorism on the annexed Ukrainian peninsula.

Sentsov, who has said he was unfairly prosecuted by what he called the “occupiers” of Crimea, was sentenced to a 20-year sentence last August following a trial that Amnesty International described as “fatally flawed.”

The wife and son of a jailed Tajik opposition politician have gone missing, according to relatives.

Muhammadali Hayit's relatives told RFE/RL on August 23 that a day earlier several men in civilian clothes took the politician's wife, Savriniso Juraeva, and their 17-year-old son Firuz from their home in Dushanbe.

The whereabouts of the two are unknown.

The relatives said that officials at the State Committee for National Security promised to keep them informed but have so far refused to provide any information about their whereabouts.

Hiyat, the deputy chairman of the banned opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), and another party deputy, Saidumar Husaini, were sentenced to life in prison in June.

A court in Dushanbe found them and several other members of the party guilty of conspiring with former Defense Minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda in a supposed armed bid to seize power in September 2015.

The IRPT leader, Muhiddin Kabiri, who now lives in exile, rejected the accusations.