THREAD 1/ The police officers who planted drugs on the investigative journalist Ivan #Golunov back in 2019 have been sentenced to 5-12 years in prison and ordered to pay Golunov compensation of 5 million rubles ($68,000). The severity of their sentences is important.
2/ We live in a society that believes that someone who was framed by the security services is lucky that they backed down. People say, “You’re lucky they didn’t put you in jail,” and see that in itself as a victory for the victim and punishment for the perpetrators.
3/ Unfortunately, the security services also think like this: that it’s punishment enough that their operation to frame an innocent person failed, and that person has been amply rewarded by getting off lightly.
4/ This system sets a very low threshold for law enforcement to break the law, and a very high threshold for ordinary people before they will seek justice. The Ivan Golunov case is invaluable because it destroys this corrupt and imbalanced construct.
5/ With the support of the public and the rationally minded part of the Russian elite, Ivan Golunov has managed not only to get his tormentors to back down, but to obtain justice. His case should set a new precedent, and become the rule rather than the exception.
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