You're reading: Ministry: Defense team of Ukrainian convicts in Libya appeals their 10-year sentence (Updated)

The defense team of a group of Ukrainians convicted in Libya to ten years in prison for helping the regime of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has filed an appeal against their sentence, Interfax-Ukraine learnt at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

“The appeal has been lodged. When the court will consider it is still unclear,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s press service reported.

As reported, a military court in Tripoli has sentenced 19 Ukrainian citizens to 10 years in jail for assisting the ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

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 were 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.

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.