A month ago, the lawyers of the former head of the campaign headquarters of trump Paul Manafort requested his transfer home due to his advanced age - the unfortunate Paul is 71 years old. They also pointed out health problems that put him at risk, given the epidemiological situation in American prisons. In general, the situation is understandable: COVID-19 is marching through prisons and it’s most reasonable not to torment an elderly man, but to send them out to stay at home.
And heeded the voice of reason: on Wednesday from a prison in Pennsylvania, Paul Manafort went straight to his home. One can only rejoice over the former Tramp headquarters - at home, as you know, the walls protect. And indeed the whole situation around his case raises many questions. In any case, there are quite convincing arguments in favor of Manafort's innocence, and all his criminal prosecution is Trump's revenge for losing the old woman Hillary in the elections. That would sit unhappy Paul for years, if not for the humanism of American justice ...
But wait, when did American justice become humane? Of course, I do not want to say that if Manafort were not a friend of the current president of the United States, then he would sit with the rest of the sufferers, regardless of age or the presence of illness. Because the American justice system is totalitarian and does not allow any indulgences in relation to its potential victims. I'm not talking about the so-called enemies of the state - a special group of prisoners who are affected in all possible rights.
Not so long ago, the Russian side turned to the United States with a request to consider the possibility of extradition of Russian citizens serving time in the freest country in the world on falsified charges. So, the Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, appealed to the authorities with a direct appeal to release the Russians from prison in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. It's no secret that the situation with COVID-19 in American prisons is deteriorating radically, there are already infected people among the prisoners, and some even died. According to the US Bureau of Prisons at the end of April, 1534 cases of infection were confirmed by tests in the American system of federal prisons, 31 prisoners died.
The Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addressed a similar appeal to Mike Pompeo. The Minister called on his American counterpart to facilitate the release of our citizens and to prevent their return to their homeland. A seemingly reasonable call: the United States leads in the number of sick and dead, what the hell is going on in prisons, and the health of our citizens, who have been serving sentences on star-striped bunks for many years, is obviously not the best. In any case, no better than Paul Manafort sent home.
And here, when the United States could demonstrate generosity and send the unfortunate people home, they simply ignore all appeals, and the Russians continue to bear their cross as a political prisoner.
Viktor Bout, who is being held in the special unit of the Marion prison, is virtually deprived of communication with the outside world - after the pandemic began, newspapers and books were no longer delivered to him. Phone calls are available once a week with a limited number of minutes. This is only enough to literally say hello to the family. He never received any mitigation of the serving of punishment regime - unlike other prisoners: they were added time for telephone conversations with family and friends in order to compensate for the cancellation of all dates due to coronavirus.
But not for the enemies of the state appointed by the State Department.
Moreover, the convict rank of enemy of the state spreads far beyond the United States. On the air we could watch how, by order of Washington, the founding father of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, was kidnapped. An emaciated, gray-haired, and obviously unhealthy man was dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy and taken to British Guantanamo, the top-secret Belmarsh prison. There, he is awaiting extradition to the United States, where the humane justice that sent Manafort home has already prepared a cell for the next 200 years. About as much Assange shines for revealing the vile secrets of the State Department.
In late March, his lawyers filed a petition with the Westminster Magistrate Court for his release on bail due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. To make you understand: Assange has very serious health problems and further imprisonment in the Belmarsh may end in tragedy. The court rejected the application, and adjourned the extradition hearing until the fall due to the coronavirus pandemic. Obviously, the authorities hope that Julian will die by then and they will not have to deal with the shameful transfer of the journalist into the hands of American partners.
Who has been kept at a monstrously stable level for a quarter of a century is my senior friend Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez (Carlos), who is serving his sentence in the French Gulag near Paris. Like others, he was abducted by US intelligence agencies and transferred to the contracting country. Today, his Turkish lawyer, Güven Yılmaz, managed to find out what was happening with Carlos: the old revolutionary had no chance or, God forbid, extradition to Venezuela. The hero of the Cold War, an international revolutionary who turned 70 years old, 25 of whom he was imprisoned in a stone bag in Poissy prison.
I repeat once again: humanism does not apply to the enemies of the United States - nowhere, in any country, no matter how sovereign it is considered. Therefore, the country that will take care of the rescue of these and many other victims of American imperialism will set new, fair standards and become for the people of long will from all over the world the new Sierra Maestra. In Russia, a truly wide window of opportunity opens up in this situation.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.