The meeting of the Podilsky district court of Kyiv on the case against chief editor of RIA Novosti - Ukraine, Kirill Vyshinsky, has been postponed to 15:00 on July 19.

The court made this decision on Monday because one of the judges was in the consultation room for a different case, Interfax-Ukraine has learned.

Prosecutor Yevhen Komarovsky told journalists that the postponement of the hearing was justified because the case can only be heard if three judges are present.

Vyshinsky's lawyer Andriy Domanskyy said, commenting on the postponement of the hearing that it happened due to a technicality. "But I do not rule political grounds out because a lot of attention is focused on this case," he said.

The Vyshinsky trial was supposed to begin at 16:15 Kyiv time on Monday, July 15. Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova came to Kyiv to attend the hearing.

According to Komarovsky, the prosecution does not perceive Moskalkova's attendance of the hearing as pressure.

Vyshinsky was arrested in Kyiv on May 15, 2018, on charges of treason; he faces up to 15 years in prison. A court in Kherson remanded him in custody on May 17.