Ambassador of Ukraine in Libya Mykola Nahorny has said that a date of a court hearing of an appeal against the decision of a Libyan court to sentence Ukrainian nationals to 10 years in prison for cooperating with the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, has not been announced yet.

"We are waiting for a date to be announced, but no one can say when the court will hear the case," the ambassador said at a meeting of a press club in Kyiv on Thursday.

He added that the appeal will be considered by the court separately on each Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian citizen, and the hearings will take a long time.

The ambassador also said that the convicted Ukrainians have enough food, are receiving the necessary medical aid, and are allowed to watch TV.

"We're doing everything we can to speed up the consideration of the Ukrainians' case," Nahorny said.

He added that Ukrainian diplomats hope that the Ukrainians will be released soon or at least sentenced to smaller terms in prison.

The ambassador stressed that the process of consideration of the appeals is being delayed due to the political situation inside the country. The process of forming the government of Libya is not finished yet. In addition, the ambassador explained that Libyan courts are loaded by lawsuits from formed officials, and do not have time to consider the Ukrainians' appeals.

On August 27, 2011, the Libyan rebel battalion Kakaa 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, the Tripoli Military Court sentenced 19 Ukrainians to 10 years of imprisonment. One Russian was sentenced to life imprisonment, one more Russian national and three Belarus citizens were sentenced to 10 years in prison.