Hryb needs immediate heart surgery / Screenshot

A hearing on the case of illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizen Pavlo Hryb in Russia on February 18 was disrupted: it lasted only two minutes, as neither a prosecutor nor an interpreter appeared for the trial.

"And this happened because Ukrainian professor Vasyl Prytula, who is a very undesirable witness for the Russian judicial system, had arrived," Ihor Hryb, Pavlo's father, said on Facebook on February 18.

Read alsoUkrainian political prisoner in Russia Pavlo Hryb tells court of torture

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"The practice of disrupting court hearings, which they started in Crimea to whittle down witnesses for the defense, has also been applied in the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don," he said.

Ihor Hryb also listed numerous violations by the Russian side in his son's case.

"The court did not let the mother visit her son. The court did not let Professor Prytula examine Pavlo. The court did not let Ukrainian diplomats meet with the citizen of Ukraine. Not a single representative of the Ukrainian media was present," he said

The next court hearing is scheduled for March 4, 2019.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Pavlo Hryb is being tried in Russia on trumped-up "terrorist" charges as investigators claim he instructed an accomplice to set off an explosive device at a Russian schoolyard. He was just 19 when he was abducted by the FSB from Belarus on August 24, 2017, after going there to meet who he thought was a young woman he had chatted with online, and fallen in love with. Hryb is diagnosed with portal hypertension, which requires daily intake of necessary medications and a special diet, the lack of which could become fatal. Russian authorities do not allow Ukrainian doctors to examine the political prisoner.

Ukrainian commissioner for human rights Liudmyla Denisova said on January 29 Hryb's condition was very serious and he needs immediate heart surgery.