You're reading: Ukrainian citizen Hryb rejects terrorism facilitation charges in Russian court, again

The Ukrainian citizen Pavlo Hryb has again rejected charges of terrorism facilitation, a correspondent of Interfax-South news agency reported from the courtroom on November 15.

“I do not plead guilty. I refuse to give testimony,” the Ukrainian said.

On November 15, the North Caucasian district military court in Rostov-on-Don in Russia started the hearings into the case against the Ukrainian citizen Hryb who is accused of terrorism facilitation despite the defendant’s disagreement.

“The judicial panel has decided to start a judicial inquiry into Hryb’s case,” the judge said.

The Russian investigators believe that over the period from March to May 2017, while being in Ukraine, the accused man had exchanged messages over the Internet with a high-school student from Sochi. According to the investigators, Hryb tried to persuade the girl to plant a self-made explosive device and set it off at a prom on the night of June 30, 2017.

The defendant used to live in Kyiv. He did not work anywhere before.

According to Pavlo Hryb, he was detained in the town of Gomel in Belarus on August 24, 2017.

On August 28, 2017, Ihor Hryb, a former officer of the Borders Guards Service of Ukraine, said that his 19-year-old son Pavlo had been kidnapped by Russia’s special agents while he was visiting Belarus.

On September 7, it became known that Pavlo Hryb was being held in a pretrial detention center in Krasnodar, Russia.

In Russia, Hryb is accused of committing a crime that is described in Part 1 of Article 205.1 (facilitation of terrorist activities.)

The Hryb’s case was transferred for hearing to the North Caucasian district military court, so he was sent by prisoner transport from Krasnodar to Rostov-on-Don.

The court hearings started last July, the prisoner at the bar did not plead guilty. In November 2018, the North Caucasian district military court in Rostov-on-Don extended the period of the arrest of the Ukrainian citizen Pavlo Hryb for six more months until April 24, 2019.