Separatists who seized Mariupol police department released from custody for prisoner swap

Zhovtnevy District Court of Mariupol has released from custody four suspects in the case of the May 9, 2014 seizure of the building of the Mariupol city police department, according to the suspects' lawyer, Vitaliy Omelchenko, Hromadske has reported.

"Zhovtnevy District Court of the city of Mariupol has changed the measure of restraint for four suspects in the case of the seizure of the building of the Mariupol city police department on May 9, 2014. They were released from custody on personal recognizance," the report reads.

According to the lawyer, Yevhen Druzhynin, Oleksandr Strelnykovych, Viktor Skrypnyk and Viacheslav Biriukov were included in the prisoner swap lists.

On May 9, 2014, a group of armed men attacked the Mariupol city police department. There was a fight in the building, in which some attackers were killed, but most fled.

On December 23, 2019, the Trilateral Contact Group agreed in Minsk on the exchange of detained persons in the "all established for all established" format by the end of 2019.

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