The United States has imposed sanctions against the Russian judge who sentenced human rights activist Alexei Gorinov to seven years in jail for speaking against the war in Ukraine.
The U.S. Treasury Department on December 31 said it was imposing sanctions on Olesya Mendeleeva "for her role in the arbitrary detention” of Gorinov, a former Moscow municipal deputy.
Gorinov, 63, was the first man to be jailed under Russia's war censorship laws and is one of the most prominent jailed dissidents still inside Russia.
He was convicted in 2022 for spreading false information about the Russian army after telling a Moscow City Council meeting that children in Ukraine were "dying every day" as a result of Moscow's invasion. He also called the full-scale invasion a "war" rather than "a special operation," according to the Treasury Department.
"Known for handing down long and harsh sentences, Mendeleeva convicted Gorinov for knowingly disseminating false information about the Russian military, becoming the first judge in Russia to find a defendant guilty...for such a charge," the department said in a news release.
SEE ALSO: Nobel Prize Winner Asks For Red Cross Help In Saving Imprisoned Russian ActivistAfter serving two years of the seven-year sentence, Gorinov was handed a new three-year sentence in November on a charge of justifying terrorism based on alleged conversations with fellow inmates about Ukraine's Azov Regiment.
During the hearing, Gorinov firmly denied any ties to terrorism, calling himself “a committed internationalist and an opponent of war and violence.”
Mendeleeva was designated for sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world. The sanctions freeze any assets the judge holds in U.S. jurisdiction and generally bars U.S. persons from dealing with her.
Earlier this year, Gorinov, who is in poor health, was transferred from a detention center in Moscow to a prison in the Vladimir region. He complained of harsh conditions, including solitary confinement in a cold cell without a mattress, blanket, or access to hot water.
Gorinov was relocated to a slightly improved cell after Dmitry Muratov, editor in chief of the Novaya gazeta newspaper and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross for an inspection of the conditions Gorinov was being held in.
The Treasury Department’s news release said Gorinov had suffered physical abuse and had been denied medical treatment.
It quoted Bradley T. Smith, acting Treasury undersecretary, as saying that Russia's manipulation of its legal system “silences dissent and suffocates the truth about Russia's indefensible war against Ukraine."
Smith added that the United States joins international human rights experts in calling for Gorinov’s release and the release of all others arbitrarily detained in Russia.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller also called on Russia to release Gorinov and all others arbitrarily detained.
“The United States stands in solidarity with the Russian people, who face threats, violence, reprisal, and imprisonment from Russian Federation authorities for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms in their own country,” Miller said in a news release.