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Human rights ombudsperson to ask for handover of two Russians convicted in Ukraine

Tatyana Moskalkova stressed she believed the two had been convicted wrongfully

Russian Human Rights Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova Sergei Bobylev/TASS

Russian Human Rights Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Once the presidential election takes place in Ukraine, Russian Human Rights Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova intends to ask the country’s president to hand two Russian nationals convicted in Ukraine over to Moscow, as she herself told TASS on Wednesday.

"After the election, I plan to request the president hand inmates Odintsov and Baranov over to Russia so that they continue to serve their sentences here," she said.

Moskalkova stressed she believed the two had been convicted wrongfully.

The human rights ombudsperson added that she considered journalist Kirill Vyshinsky, who is being prosecuted in Ukraine, to be innocent. "We need to do everything possible to persuade Ukraine to end the criminal investigation because he is being prosecuted only for his beliefs and the things he said as a journalist," Moskalkova concluded.

The Ukrainian presidential election is scheduled to take place on March 31.

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