Markiv returning to Ukraine

Ukrainian National Guard serviceman Vitaliy Markiv, who was acquitted by the Milan Court of Appeals on November 3, is due to return to Ukraine on Wednesday, November 4, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry has reported.

According to the report, Markiv will be met at the National Guard airfield at 5a Medova Street in Kyiv at 14:00.

On November 3, the Milan Court of Appeals acquitted Markiv, and he was released from prison.

Markiv, Senior Sergeant of the National Guard of Ukraine, was serving his term in a prison near Milan after a court of first instance sentenced him to 24 years in prison last July for his alleged involvement in the deaths of Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli and his interpreter, Russian Andrei Mironov, near Sloviansk, Ukraine's Donetsk region, in 2014.

Markiv has been in custody since he was arrested in Bologna on June 30, 2017.

The session of the Milan Court of Appeals on November 3 was attended by Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova.

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