12.10.2016

Anton Nosik: "In case the trial takes place in the US, Ilyumzhinov would win it outright"

More than a hundred of Russian functionaries, businessmen and officials are included in different sanctions lists of the US government. They don’t seek sympathy and they pretend that nothing serious has happened to worry about.

However, there is one person who believes that his inclusion in the sanctions lists is unjustified and is ready to fight to prove it. It is the President of World Chess Federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. He is accused of providing the financial support to the Central Bank of Syria and President Assad.

Ilyumzhinov categorically rejects these allegations. Moreover, he is ready to undergo the polygraph test to reveal the truth. However, the problem is that nobody cares about the truth. Some unnamed US officials have decided that he was a bad guy, and he does not have a legal way to prove his innocence now.
Ilyumzhinov appealed to the US Treasury with request to explain what exactly he had been accused of. In reply he received a letter with photocopied articles from the Guardian published in 2006 and 2014. It doesn’t refer to Syria at all. True, these are just officials who care mostly about the papers and least of all about what’s written in them.
Today Ilyumzhinov is trying to reach out to their superiors. He launched a petition on the White House website with the request that his alleged support for Assad should be investigated on the US soil and in the US Supreme Court.
The problem with the US law is that, in contrast to Russia, the prosecution must prove guilt. The letter from the US Treasury shows that there is no evidence of his guilt at all. All they have are some clippings from British newspapers. So, if the trial takes place, Kirsan Nikolaevich would win it outright. The only hope for the officials is that there would be no trial at all.
100,000 signatures are needed to get a response from the White House. Would you help your compatriot to gather them?