Foreign Minister of Ukraine Kostyantyn Gryshchenko has said that the ministry will pay for the services of the defense lawyers of the Ukrainians detained in Libya.
The minister said this at a meeting with relatives of the detainees,
according to the Information Policy Department of the Foreign Ministry.
“The minister said that on June 20 the office of public defenders in
Tripoli with the assistance of Ukraine’s Embassy in Libya appealed
against the conviction of 19 Ukrainians that were sentenced to 10 years
of imprisonment. The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine is paying for the
services of the lawyers,” reads the statement.
Diplomats from the embassy regularly visit the detainees and provide
them with food, means for personal care, and give them the possibility
to communicate with their relatives by phone.
“Gryshchenko expressed his support to the relatives of the detained
Ukrainians and said that he personally and all Ukrainian diplomats are
concerned about the fate of their compatriots, who found themselves in
difficult conditions, and will take all necessary measures to return
them to Ukraine as soon as possible,” reads the statement.
Reports said earlier that Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian citizens
were captured by the rebellious Libyan battalion Qaqaa on August 27,
2011. All were charged with restoring weapons which the Gaddafi regime
used “to exterminate the Libyan people.”
The group was freed after the Russian Embassy’s mediation on
September 3, but they were detained again on September 6 to probe their
suspected involvement in the restoration and modernization of weaponry
for the Gaddafi armed forces.
As reported, a military court in Tripoli sentenced 19 Ukrainian
citizens to 10 years in jail for assisting the ex-Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi’s regime.
The same court also sentenced one Russian citizen to life in prison
and gave 10-year prison sentences to one more Russian and three
Belarusian citizens.
