THE latest episode in Russia’s long history of judicial travesties played out this week in a stuffy courtroom in Rostov-on-Don, a provincial city near the Ukrainian border. As two defendants sat in a cage behind their lawyers, a prosecutor in dark glasses described them as bloodthirsty Ukrainian radicals who ran a terrorist cell in Crimea in early 2014. They had allegedly plotted to blow up a statue of Lenin.
The lead defendant is Oleg Sentsov (pictured), a Ukrainian film director, and the supposed terrorist plot is every bit as fictional as his screenplays. Mr Sentsov’s real offense was to oppose Russia’s annexation of his native Crimea, helping deliver food to Ukrainian soldiers trapped on their bases after the Russian invasion. After his arrest, Mr Sentsov says, he was tortured by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). (The prosecution claims his injuries came from sadomasochistic sex.) Mr Sentsov faces a potential life sentence. Dmitry Dinze, his lawyer, estimates his chance of acquittal at “none”.
Mr Sentsov is only the tip of the iceberg. The Ukrainian government says that at least ten of its citizens are…
