HELP FREE ANTI-WAR CAMPAIGNER SASHA SKOCHILENKO

Aleksandra Skochilenko - known to her friends as Sasha - was arrested in response to her peaceful anti-war campaigning. Her crime? She replaced price stickers in shops with messages of peace. In response, the Russian police arrested and sexually assualted her, and then took her to prison, charged with ‘disseminating deliberately false information’. She is now awaiting trial and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. 

You have the opportunity right now, by giving a donation to Amnesty International UK, to help the campaign to free Sasha and fight for freedom of expression in Russia.

Sasha heard what was happening in Ukraine after talking to friends who called her from bomb shelters during an attack.

But words like ‘war’, ‘invasion’ and ‘attack’ have all been banned in Russia. Someone spotted her protest and reported her to the police. 

Sasha has now been held in pre-trial detention since April. But she suffers from coeliac disease, a genetic intolerance to gluten and risks organ failure or starvation if her diet is not managed safely. The prison authorities have been withholding access to safe foods and her only option is to eat hardly anything or, on some days, nothing at all. Sasha could die for expressing her opinion through a peaceful protest. 

 Sasha’s protest was small, but very important and has been seen and felt by millions around the world. Your kindness and passionate sense of justice are equally powerful. 

Your donation could help influence those in positions of power in Russia and elsewhere to end the clampdown on peaceful protest and help lead to the restoration of freedom of speech in Russia. The censorship laws in Russia, adopted to shut down any criticism of the war in Ukraine, must be repealed and everyone imprisoned by them – including Sasha – must be immediately released.

But Sasha is resolute in her actions. As she explains: “I regret that my victim story distracts and leads away from the … real victims of the hostilities that are now taking place (in) Ukraine. All I wanted and want is for them to stop.”