France to make efforts to free Sushchenko - Ambassador Dumont

France is closely monitoring the situation with Roman Sushchenko, an Ukrinform journalist illegally convicted in Russia, and together with the Ukrainian side it will make efforts to free him.

French Ambassador to Ukraine Isabelle Dumont said this in a comment to Ukrinform on Friday, October 19.

"France is very closely monitoring the situation with Roman Sushchenko. I can assure you that we will continue to do so. The agency in which he worked, and the Ukrainian authorities, I think, will also act in this area, and our efforts will be joint. France will remain close to its Ukrainian colleagues in the work aimed at freeing Sushchenko," Dumont said.

When asked how Russia can be influenced so that it does not postpone the issue of the release of Ukrainian political prisoners before elections in Ukraine, the diplomat noted that "negotiations and exchange of views on this issue are ongoing."

On June 4, 2018, the Moscow City Court sentenced Sushchenko to 12 years of imprisonment on trumped-up charges of espionage. 

On September 12, the Russian Supreme Court upheld the verdict as "legal."

On October 8, it was reported that Sushchenko had been sent to a penal colony.

op