MOSCOW, September 29 (Itar-Tass) —— The decision in the case of Russian citizens Alexander Shadrov and Vladimir Dogov, who have been sentenced in Libya for assistance to the Muammar al-Gaddafi regime, will be made shortly, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said, citing the Libyan authorities’ assurances.
“In connection with controversial publications that periodically appear in our press, including those that refer to the relatives of Shadrov and Dolgov, who have been sentenced by a Libyan court martial for assistance to the Gaddafi regime, we would like to confirm that the task of freeing these Russian citizens and bringing them back home remains one of the priorities in the work of the Russian Foreign Ministry, specifically of our Embassy in Tripoli,” he said on Saturday, September 29.
Recalled that immediately after the guilty verdict, an appeal was prepared and filed by a local lawyer hired by the Russian Embassy.
“Consideration and contesting of the court ruling has been delayed by the fact, as the Libyan side has explained, that governmental institutions are being reorganised in the country, including judicial bodies. Nevertheless, the Libyan authorities have assured us that the decision on the case would be made shortly,” he said.
“The Russian Embassy in Tripoli continues to provide constant consultative, moral and psychological support to the convicts,” Lukashevich said. “Officials from the Embassy’s consular section visit Shadrov and Dolgov on a regular basis, supply them with food, clothes and basic necessities.”
The spokesman said that the convicted Russian citizens had not complained to diplomats about their conditions, health or treatment.
“They say that they are not compelled to any compulsory labour,” he added.
Moscow intends to “actively press the Libyan side for releasing Shadrov and Doglov at the earliest opportunity possible as well as the citizens of Belarus and Ukraine who were sentenced together with them and for letting them go back home”, the spokesman said.
“This was discussed in particular at a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Libyan Foreign Minister Ashour Bin Khayal on September 27 in New York where the ministerial week of the 67th session of the U.N. General Assembly is taking place,” Lukashevich said.