{"id":1930,"date":"2018-06-06T16:26:47","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T22:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/supportthebitkovs.com\/?p=1930"},"modified":"2018-06-09T07:56:03","modified_gmt":"2018-06-09T13:56:03","slug":"english-the-bitkovs-an-update-and-an-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/supportthebitkovs.com\/en\/2018\/06\/06\/english-the-bitkovs-an-update-and-an-emergency\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bitkovs: An Update and an Emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ESPA\u00d1OL DISPONIBLE AQU\u00cd:<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

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Three Bitkovs at trial in December 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By<\/span>\u00a0JAY NORDLINGER\u00a0<\/a>June 6, 2018 2:38 PM<\/span><\/p>\n

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In April, I traveled to Guatemala to visit three prisoners: Igor, Irina, and Anastasia Bitkov. Igor and Irina are husband and wife, and Anastasia is their daughter. The Bitkovs also have a son, Vladimir, age six. What has happened to this family is cruel and Kafkaesque. Indeed, it is evil, to reach for the strongest of all words.I wrote about the Bitkovs and their case\u00a0here<\/a>. I would like to give an update \u2014 but first, the briefest of reminders:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Bitkovs were a successful business family in Russia. They had to flee their country, in fear of their lives. They found refuge in Guatemala and lived fairly normally there for several years. Then, they were ensnared in a passport case, facing a bizarre coalition of the Russian state, Guatemalan authorities, and a U.N. agency. To be frank about it, the coalition reeks of corruption. The more you know, the worse the smell is.Igor was sentenced to 19 years in prison; Irina and Anastasia were sentenced to 14 years each. By comparison, the sentence for rape is eight to twelve years. And murderers almost never get what the Bitkovs got. I could go on.Now, an update. In late April, the Helsinki Commission in Washington convened a hearing on this case. This rattled the powers-that-be in Guatemala, and there was movement in the case. Igor Bitkov, after undergoing a terrible physical ordeal \u2014 a scandal in itself \u2014 was released from prison. He is under the kind of arrest that confines him to the country but not to his house. (He has been reunited with his son, who has been in the care of guardians, after a terrible ordeal in an orphanage.) But Irina and Anastasia? They are still in prison. The judges seem to be toying with them. Another hearing on the fate of Irina and Anastasia will be held tomorrow.<\/p>\n