Russian court upholds ‘sentence’ to Ukrainian human rights defender Butkevych

As Mediazona reports, judges Melekhov, Izotieva, and Troyan upheld a 13-year prison sentence but ruled to count the actual time spent in custody from August 19, 2022 — that is, from the moment when the Ministry of Defense of Russia recognized the fact of Butkevych's imprisonment.

Butkevych's lawyer Leonid Solovyov told his client after the judgment was delivered: "We are waiting for exchange. If there is no exchange – we will file a cassation appeal."

As reported, on March 10, a "court" of the Russian occupation administration in the temporarily occupied territory in Luhansk region "sentenced" Ukrainian human rights defender, now a prisoner of war, Maksym Butkevych to 13 years in a strict regime penal colony.

Human rights defender, journalist, and co-founder and member of NGO "Hromadske Radio" Maksym Butkevych was captured in the summer of 2022.

When the full-scale war began, Butkevich put his work on helping refugees, journalistic, humanitarian, educational and human rights protection activities on hold and went to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called on the international community to condemn the trial of the captured Ukrainian human rights defender Maksym Butkevych and the other two Ukrainians and to demand the Russian Federation release them.

Photo: Hromadske Radio