Release Mikhail Trepashkin

At Defender Alert Network, a petition for the release of Mikhail Trepashkin, the defence lawyer illegally re-imprisoned by the Russian authorities in September 2005, and still detained in a penal colony under harsh and inhuman conditions:

Trepashkin is not receiving adequate medical care for acute asthma, and his health is deteriorating. Having exhausted all legal appeals of his detention, he needs your help.

According to his lawyers, there is a possibility that Trepashkin could be transferred to a facility with even worse conditions. Instead, Trepashkin must be transferred immediately to a civilian hospital for in-patient treatment.

In October 2003, Trepashkin was arrested just before presenting evidence in court suggesting government complicity in the 1999 apartment building bombings which helped to spark the Second Chechen War. His persecution through the misuse of the legal system appears designed to silence his nonviolent criticism of government policy.

Dozens of leading Russian human rights advocates have issued statements in his support. Please join them and call for Trepashkin's release.

There is more about Trepashkin's case here.