Viasna’s Marfa Rabkova facing 20 years on 11 charges

Marfa (Maryia) Rabkova, a political prisoner and coordinator of Viasna’s network of volunteers, has been charged with eleven criminal offenses and faces up to 20 years in prison, her family said quoting a recent letter from the prisoner.

Apart from several protest-related charges, Rabkova is accused of “calls for actions aimed at harming the national security,” “creating an extremist formation,” “managing a criminal organization,” “inciting social hostility,” “hooliganism” and “deliberate destruction or damage to property.”

Rabkova says some of the charges are older unsolved cases that the police attempt to impute to her in retaliation for her activism. The 26-year-old and several other young activists involved in the case were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, and Rabkova believes that the trial will be held behind closed doors to hide apparent falsification of evidence.

Marfa Rabkova has been in prison for more than 14 months and refused to testify throughout her detention. Earlier, she told her relatives in a letter that police officers promised her a prison term “somewhere between Babaryka and Kalesnikava” (14 and 11 years).

Write to Marfa: