09:20 12.05.2017

Verification of DPR lists of people jailed in Ukraine completed – Ombudsman's office

2 min read

The Office of the of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada human rights ombudsman said the verification of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) lists of people, who are imprisoned on the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, is finalized, but said that an agreement on verification of people being at large may be reached only within the framework of the Trilateral Contact Group.

"There are different categories of people, who are subjected to verification. There are certain people, who are being held at penitentiaries, i.e. they are serving their sentence or they are being under investigation and were placed into custody [...] Verification at correctional facilities have been carried out," Mykhailo Chaplyha, spokesman of the Office of the of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada human rights ombudsman, told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.

"Now the point is to verify those people, who are not being held at penitentiaries. But political agreements in Minsk are needed to conduct this verification. We hope that they will be reached shortly. And we will in principle be able to do this, as well," he said.

Speaking about what was the reason behind the ombudsman Office's joining the process, he said that "the primary problem was the choice of an institution, which all the parties to the 'Minsk process' trust."

"It was decided that the ombudsman's Office is an institution everybody trusts. Later it was discussed in Minsk that mothers of people, who are staying on the territory controlled by Ukraine, will also attend [the talks]. Verification involving representatives of the ombudsman's Office, four representatives of mothers and the OSCE representative has been finally undertaken on the OSCE floors," Chaplyha said.

"As to the LPR, the verification is also proceeding according to the same scheme. There are fewer people there, it is easier, we hope that this process will be completed quicker," the Ukrainian ombudsman's Office spokesperson said, when asked by Kyiv-based Interfax correspondent about what the situation with verification of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) lists is.

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