Russia’s Supreme Court upholds sentence for Ukrainian political prisoner Pavlo Hryb

"The court upholds the verdict and denies the motion filed by the defense," the judge said, TASS reports.

The defense filed a motion, drawing the attention of the Supreme Court to the inadmissibility of the evidence that became the grounds for delivering the judgment in the court of the first instance.

"The time and place of drawing up the protocol of detention do not correspond to reality. He [Hryb] was beaten, tortured and forced to give testimony, which then laid the foundation for the sentence. I believe that the judgment should be overturned," the lawyer said.

The convict stated that he did not agree with the verdict of the court. "I was convicted for no reason and I do not agree with what is happening. I try to prove that the charges against me are groundless and unsubstantiated. I do not agree with the prosecution and the sentence," Pavlo Hryb said.

In turn, the prosecutor asked the court to uphold the ruling.

In February this year, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova reported on extremely critical health condition of Ukrainian political prisoner Pavlo Hryb and called on the international community to assist in providing him with medical assistance.

As reported, Pavlo Hryb went missing on August 24, 2017 in Belarus, where he arrived to date a girl with whom he communicated on social network. Later, the girl confessed in an interview that she really invited the boy to Belarus and stated she had been forced to do that by officers of Russia’s Federal Security service.

Hryb was found in pre-trial detention facility No.5 in the Russian city of Krasnodar. He was charged under Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Terrorism").

On March 22, 2019, the Russian court sentenced Pavlo Hryb to six years in prison colony on charges of “contributing to terrorist activities.”

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