Help for a collector.

[Attila]

http://www.ussrphoto.com/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2451

http://petapixel.com/2013/09/20/ukrainian-camera-collector-faces-7-years-jail-owning-soviet-spy-cameras/

[calvin83]

Are they have nothing else to do but search for someone who own these out-dated spy cameras?

[Attila]

Law wasn't updated since communism and somebody was "smart" and report him at police, police was stupid too and case going...
In similar situation in my country police throw out guy who report others like this, except if was political order , in this case every kind of bullshit works. May happened here too, collector is a party member or rich company owner or just simple guy like we are and victim of stupidity if we can help him with simple protest let's go do it.

[Farside]

Absolutely gob-smacking in its stupidity.
Even if it were a malicious prosecution, did the prosecutors not stop to think just how stupid this ancient piece of tech makes them look?

[philslizzy]

[fermy]

On the surface this does not seem to be politically/business motivated, which is actually a good news for the poor guy - otherwise he would stand no chance. He is from Donetsk, but the case against him was brought in Uzhgorod, which is a border town on the other side of the country. One would think that if they wanted just to find pretext to jail the guy, they would handle that locally. It looks as if someone at the customs saw the content of the package and alerted KGB (or rather their Ukrainian successor). Why KGB got interested is absolutely bizarre, they are assholes, but this case looks like a total waste of time. Very strange story.

[RSalles]

This is a case for Amnesty International. The citizen is charged for a political crime when it's not the case. Political persecution is subject to the IA analysis, and initiative. Maybe this can make some pressure over local gov. and bring more light to the case.

Renato