Ukraine authorities will not make public presidential decrees granting pardon to prisoners who have been handed over to Russia as part of the major exchange effort on Sept 7, according to Ukrainian Ombudsperson Liudmyla Denisova, who was a member of the swap working group.
Asked by RBC, how many people from those who returned to the Russian Federation were pardoned by the president of Ukraine (as reported numbers varied from 12 to 16), Denisova said: "The decrees will not be published because they are classified. Such documents are never published."
She also emphasized that she can only comment on her own work.
As UNIAN reported earlier, 24 Ukrainian POW sailors captured by Russian special forces near the Kerch Strait in November 2018, and 11 political prisoners were returned by Russia to Ukraine as part of prisoner exchange on Sept 7. The political prisoners include Roman Sushchenko, Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Volodymyr Balukh, Stanislav Klykh, Mykola Karpyuk, Oleksiy Syzonovych, Pavlo Hryb, Edem Bekirov, Yevhen Panov, and Artur Panov.
At the same time, 35 people were transferred to Russia. All of them were convicted or being tried on various charges.
