jimbabwe Today, October 31, I, Evgeniia Zatoka, wife of the convicted, Andrey Zatoka, appealed to the Russian Embassy in Ashgabat and met with embassy official Aleksey Mikhailovich Demin. I provided the Embassy with Andrey’s Russian passport (issued in 2007, expiration 2012), as well as with materials from the trial: the indictment and the verdict. I gave the Embassy the original statement by Andrey Zatoka to the Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Turkmenistan, in which Andrey writes of his decision to renounce his Turkmen citizenship in favor of his Russian citizenship. I described to Aleksey Mikhailovich the trial, which I attended, and conveyed Andrey’s arguments on behalf of his innocence in the crime for which he has since been convicted.
I am surprised by the rumors that have surfaced in the media that Andrey does not have Russian citizenship (that his citizenship has expired). Now that the Embassy has all of the documents in Andrey’s case, and complete and reliable information from the wife of the convicted regarding what has transpired, I am confident that the Russian Embassy and Russia will take all necessary measures to protect the Russian citizen. A.M. Demin paid tremendous attention to my recounting of the course of events, and I have reason to hope that this nightmarish story will be favorably resolved.
I am very troubled by the fact that yesterday, October 30, I was again denied permission to meet with my husband. On the appointed morning, Judge G. Muradova could not allow observation of the trial because she “could not find” the official stamp of the representative of the court, who “was on travel and would only return on Tuesday after lunch.” To date, the only contact I have had with my husband has been through his lawyer, who saw Andrey on October 30 after lunch.
I would like to express the most sincere thanks to the hundreds of people in various countries around the world who are involving themselves in Andrey’s fate; I thank you for your support and hope that the media and decision-makers will not rely on assumptions, but will make use of the real facts.
Translated by Crude Accountability