Vyshinsky May Be Released by Court Decision on Monday - Ukrainian Prosecution

KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2019) The press secretary of Ukrainian prosecutor general, Larysa Sargan, voiced the belief on Monday that RIA Novosti Ukraine portal head Kirill Vyshinsky, who has been held in Ukrainian custody for over a year, could be released later in the day.

Later on Monday, a court hearing in Vyshinsky's case will be held at Podolsky district court in Kiev. Russian High Commissioner for Human Rights Tatiana Moskalkova has arrived in Kiev to support Vyshinky.

"What do we expect? That this person will be officially released by court decision," Sargan wrote on Facebook.

According to Sargan, this would be possible thanks to the decision of the Ukrainian Constitutional Court and a "small note" that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had allegedly received from a "Russian journalist."

Alexey Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of Russia's Echo of Moscow radio station, said last week that he had handed over to Zelenskyy a letter from Vyshinsky's mother.

Vyshinsky was detained in Kiev on May 15, 2018 on suspicion of supporting the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in the east of Ukraine and treason, and has been held in custody since then. Along with repeatedly prolonging the journalist's arrest, the court has also refused to move him from a detention facility to house arrest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Vyshinsky's arrest is politically motivated and demonstrates the former Ukrainian authorities' unacceptable policy of targeting journalists.

Harlem Desir, the representative on freedom of the media at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has also expressed concern over Ukraine's actions toward Vyshinsky and called for the journalist's release, stressing that all OSCE members have pledged to create the necessary conditions to allow journalists to work freely.