Ukrainian political prisoner Pavlo Hryb, 20, who had been abducted from Belarus by the Russian FSB to be then wrongfully charged with plotting a terror attack at a Russian school gathering was heard saying at todays' hearing in a Russian court "I plead not guilty."
"I completely disagree with the charge, because during the investigation there were made critical errors that don't allow substantiating this charge to have grounds for prosecution," he said after the indictment had been handed down, according to a Censor.net correspondent, reporting from Russia's North Caucasus Regional Court in Rostov-on-Don.
The prosecutor read out the indictment for six minutes. He said that Hryb acted under the pressure of a a man who goes by the name of Stefan Kapinos, whom he met in 2013.
It is stated that in 2017 Pavlo got acquainted online with Tatyana Yershova, a Russian schoolgirl from Sochi. He communicated with her via Skype, when she supposedly said she does not like teachers and her fellow students, all of whom are Russians. According to the investigation, Hryb was inciting het to making a bomb and setting it off amid a school gathering. Although Yershova was allegedly willing to do this, she did not commit the act, the prosecutor said.
Thus, Hryb is being charged under Part 1 of Article 205.1 of Russia's Criminal Code, which stipulates inducement to a terrorist attack.
Hryb's lawyer, Marina Dubrovina, added that serious violations had been recorded during the investigation, which means all further hearings must be stopped immediately.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Pavlo Hryb was in August 2017 abducted from Belarus by the Russian FSB security force and consequently illegally arrested in the Russian Federation.
Trumped-up charges were pressed against the young man, who was 19 at that moment, under Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (an act of terrorism). Russian investigators accused Hryb of allegedly plotting a terrorist attack at a school assembly in Sochi.
Hryb is diagnosed with portal hypertension, which requires daily intake of necessary medications and a special diet, the lack of which could become fatal.
The Russian authorities do not allow Ukrainian doctors to examine the political prisoner's health.
On July 3, 2018, the court in Rostov-on-Don ruled to continue holding Pavlo Hryb in custody until December 20.
