17:53 01.02.2018

Kyiv demands Russia grants Ukrainian doctors access to Hryb

2 min read
Kyiv demands Russia grants Ukrainian doctors access to Hryb

The Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry will step up international pressure on Russia with the aim of freeing Ukrainian citizen Pavlo Hryb, who is illegally held in Russia, the Foreign Ministry's press secretary Mariana Betsa has said.

"We protest against the decision of the Russian court concerning the abducted Hryb. We will increase the pressure on the Russian Federation to free Pavlo... Given Hryb's serious health problems, we again demand the Russian Federation grants Ukrainian doctors access to Hryb," she wrote on her Twitter account on Thursday.

As earlier reported, Ex-Ukrainian State Border Guard Service official Ihor Hryb said on August 28, 2017, that Russian special services had abducted his 19-year-old son Pavlo during a visit to Gomel, Belarus, where he went on August 24 to meet a girl whom he had met and talked to only on social-networking sites. It was agreed that Pavlo would return the same day. After he failed to return the next day, Ihor Hryb travelled to Gomel to look for him.

He said that in Belarus he had learned that Pavlo was on a Russian list of wanted persons in connection with a terrorist attack, and that a search had been initiated by the Russian Federal Security Service's Directorate for the Krasnodar region in Sochi.

It was reported on September 7, 2017, that Hryb was in a detention facility in Krasnodar, Russia.

Russia's Krasnodar Regional Court on December 15, 2017, extended a pre-trial preventive measure in the form of arrest for Hryb until March 4, 2018.

On February 1, 2018, Ihor Hryb said his son's health condition is poor and he doesn't receive necessary medical care. In addition, he said there are no doctors specializing in Pavlo's illness in Krasnodar and no one will be able to provide the necessary medical assistance.

He also said the Krasnodar Regional Court met on Thursday to consider an appeal against the pre-trial preventive measure, Pavlo's defense lawyer learned about the meeting accidentally. "On February 1, in violation of all terms, a meeting of the Krasnodar Regional Court was held to review the appeal against the preventive measure for Pavlo. The lawyer found out about the court hearing accidentally on its eve. Everything was done in such a way so that the parents were unable to attend it" the defendant's father explained.

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