GENEVA, March 5. /TASS/. Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova gave to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet a letter in defense of RIA Novosti Ukraine’s Editor-in-Chief Kirill Vyshinsky. She asks Bachelet to influence Ukraine’s authorities in order to ease the conditions of the journalist’s detention and his examination by independent physicians.
"I ask you to help in [Vyshinsky’s] medical examination by independent physicians," Moskalkova wrote.
She added that she will be very grateful if Bachelet has a possibility "to somehow imprint on the Ukrainian side" to help Vyshinsky, "who didn’t do anything save his own professional journalist activity."
Moskalkova noted that at the last court session Vyshinsky did not feel well, and an ambulance was called on for him several times. "However, the Ukrainian side is not ready to replace his custody with a home arrest or other milder measure of punishment," she stressed.
Moskalkova earlier discussed the Vyshinsky case with Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova and stated that she would like to attend the court’s session on March 20 on Vyshinsky’s appeal against the extension of his custody term.
The investigation into the death of Ivanov
Moskalkova also gave Bachelet an address over the death of Russian citizen Valery Ivanov in a colony in the Lvov Region. He was killed in the prison, the human rights commissioner said.
"The relatives ask to investigate the circumstances of his death. The Ukrainian side says that it is an accident, but when his body was examined multiple rib fractures and a head injury were found," Moskalkova noted.
Vyshinsky case
On May 15, 2018, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) carried out a large-scale operation against RIA Novosti Ukraine staff members, accusing them of high treason. The news outlet’s Chief Editor Kirill Vyshinsky was arrested. The SBU issued a statement claiming that "a network of media structures which Moscow used for carrying out a hybrid war" against Kiev had been exposed.
Charges against Vyshinsky are particularly based on a number of the journalist’s articles dedicated to the 2014 events in Crimea. If found guilty, the journalist may face up to 15 years. However, he pleaded not guilty.
Vyshinsky, originally a Ukrainian national, obtained Russian citizenship in 2015. He addressed Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko from the courtroom, renouncing his Ukrainian citizenship and saying he considered himself to be only a Russian national. He also addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking for legal assistance in his release.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced on January 14 that the pre-trial investigation into the journalist’s case had ended and the lawyers were allowed to have access to the case files. The case will be studied by a court in Kiev, where Vyshinsky will be taken from a Kherson pre-trial detention center.