Libya's Supreme Military Court will start considering on April 10 an appeal by Ukrainians who were sentenced to ten years in prison for aiding the regime of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has reported.

"On April 10, the Supreme Military Court of Libya will start considering an appeal against the sentence passed on the Ukrainian citizens," Acting Director of the Information Policy Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Yevhen Perebyinis said at a briefing on Tuesday.

He said that the issue concerns 19 Ukrainian citizens whom a court in Libya sentenced to ten years in jail.

Perebyinis said that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Ukrainian Embassy in Libya had assisting in involving qualified lawyers and translators in this trial and taking a number of measures to collect evidence in favor of the Ukrainians.

"The Ukrainian side hopes that Libya's Supreme Military Court will consider the appeal of Ukrainian citizens in an open and transparent manner, that the decision will be impartial and fair and that it will meet the Libyan government's statements of intent to build a modern and democratic state," he said.

As reported, on August 27, 2011, the Libyan rebel Kakaa battalion detained Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens (25 people all in all). The people were charged with having restored military equipment used by the Gaddafi regime "to destroy the people of Libya."

On June 4, 2012, the Tripoli Military Court sentenced 19 Ukrainians to ten years of imprisonment. One Russian was sentenced to life imprisonment, and one more Russian national and three Belarus citizens were sentenced to ten years in prison.

Ukraine filed an appeal against the verdicts in the cases of the Ukrainian citizens.