KYIV, Aug 3 – Members of the unregistered organization Samostina Ukraina, against whom proceedings were instituted on charges that they took over the Communist Party building in Kyiv, have demanded that they be given the status of politically repressed, applied to those arrested for political reasons, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
Members of Samostina Ukraina made a statement to this effect in Kyiv on Thursday at a press conference, which was called after they were released and placed under a warrant arrest not to leave Kyiv.
Member of the organization Natalia Nemchinova said that the Communist Party building was used by the members of the organization for the purpose of “declaring their ideas”.
She read a statement “to the Ukrainian people” stating, in particular, that “the main thing that should guide a Ukrainian in his actions should be the good of his nation.” “This was the motive behind our action,” she explained.
Samostina Ukraina members did not plead guilty to any charges brought against them, as “they acted out of absolute necessity”, since “Ukraine was facing a threat from the Communist Party.”
On August 8, members of this organization plan to picket the office of the human rights ombudsman of the Verkhovna Rada Nina Karpachova, in protest of the violation of human rights in jail. They also plan to demand Karpachova’s resignation from office.
