The transfer of 15 convicts from occupied areas in Donbas to Ukraine for serving their sentence in Ukrainian-controlled territory did not take place on March 15, as was scheduled, due to incorrectly prepared documents, Mykhailo Chaplyha, a representative of the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, has said.
“There will be no transfer of 15 men to the Ukrainian side today because the documents were incorrectly prepared by the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine […] We have the first negative consequences of the so-called State Penitentiary Service’s reform within the Ministry of Justice, but we will take measures to help the Ministry of Justice work more efficiently,” he said in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine on March 15.
Chaplyha also noted that the Human Rights Commissioner’s Office hopes the convicted will be handed over to the Ukrainian side in the near future. “This is really a technical failure, and we hope everything will take place soon,” he said.
Earlier, a source in the so-called penitentiary service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic told Interfax.ru that 15 convicts who want to serve their sentence in the territory of Ukraine were to be transferred to the Ukrainian side on March 15.
