17 Jan 2019, 08:03

Ukrainian investigators searching home, office of Russian journalist’s lawyer

Andrei Domansky says he is away in Kherson

Kirill Vyshinsky AP Photo/Victor Platov

Kirill Vyshinsky

© AP Photo/Victor Platov

KIEV, January 17. /TASS/. Investigators from the Office of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General are conducting searches of the home and office of Andrei Domansky, the lawyer of the RIA Novosti Ukraine news outlet’s chief editor Kirill Vyshinsky.

"The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has decided to search my home and office, as well as the home of my assistant, while I am away in Kherson, studying the case files and waiting for a court hearing of the request to extend Kirill Vyshinsky’s arrest," Domansky wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

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.

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Journalist Vyshinsky must be released immediately — Kremlin

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.

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