Andriy Domansky, lawyer for RIA Novosti Ukraine portal head Kirill Vyshinsky, expects his client to be fully acquitted on all counts in light of a Ukrainian court ruling earlier in the day that the journalist be released from custody on his own recognizance
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2019) Andriy Domansky, lawyer for RIA Novosti Ukraine portal head Kirill Vyshinsky, expects his client to be fully acquitted on all counts in light of a Ukrainian court ruling earlier in the day that the journalist be released from custody on his own recognizance."We continue to consider the merits of the case. And as a lawyer who defends an innocent person, the only thing I can count on is an acquittal," Domansky told Rossiya 24 tv channel.
He emphasized that not only was there a chance for this outcome but that it was the only possible verdict for this case.
"For me, this is an expected decision, because I know that it is fully consistent with the letter of the law," the lawyer said commenting on the Kiev Appeal Court's ruling to release Vyshinsky from custody.
The next hearing of Vyshinsky's case is scheduled for September 16.
Vyshinsky was detained on May 15, 2018, by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) in a parking lot near his house in Kiev on suspicion of supporting the self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and treason. Later that day, he was transferred to the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, where he was taken into custody by a court order.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly said that Vyshinsky's arrest was 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), had also expressed his concern over Ukraine's actions toward Vyshinsky and called for the journalist's release. The organization's secretary general, Thomas Greminger, had said that all OSCE member states should comply with international standards and avoid interfering in the media's work.
