Political prisoner Shumkov returns to Ukraine

"Now officially: Ukrainian political prisoner and serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Shumkov is free!" Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova posted on Facebook.

Shumkov crossed the Ukraine-Russia border and arrived at the Bachivsk border crossing point where he was met by relatives, a representative of the Commissioner's Office and representatives of the territorial bodies of the Armed Forces’ military administration.

The Commissioner informed that Oleksandr would go to a military unit in Kherson where he had done his military service before detention.

Shumkov was released from the penal colony on December 23 and transferred to the temporary detention center for foreign citizens of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Tver region.

"For more than three years, he stayed in illegal detention in a penal colony in the town of Torzhok, Tver region. He was kept in a penal isolation ward and a strict detention unit for almost the entire period of his imprisonment," Denisova reminded.

As reported, former bodyguard of Dmytro Yarosh, Kherson resident Oleksandr Shumkov, was sentenced to four years in prison in Russia on December 4, 2018. The court ruling stated that he participated in the Right Sector movement activities "aimed against the interests of Russia" from November 17, 2014 to August 23, 2017.

Earlier, Shumkov reported that the FSB threatened he "would not return alive from Russia" for refusal to cooperate.

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