Kyiv trying to speed up consideration of appeal against Ukrainians' sentence in Libya, says Foreign Ministry

14:38, 09.10.2012 1 min read

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine is trying to speed up the consideration of an appeal against the sentence of Ukrainians detained in Libya.

"We cannot announce the day of the hearing on the appeal yet, but we are working to speed up this process," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Dykusarov said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

According to him, the Ukrainian detainees are supplied with everything they need, and diplomats visit them every week to pass them necessary provisions.

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, 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.

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