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Lawyer of detained Russian citizen says threatened by Ukraine’s military prosecutors

The lawyer dismissed the reports that the charges have been brought against Yerofeyev and another Russian citizen Alexander Alexandrov, stressing that the actions of Ukraine’s prosecutors are illegal
Trial in the Shevchenko district court in Kiev as a TV screen shows Yevgeny Yerofeyev EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO
Trial in the Shevchenko district court in Kiev as a TV screen shows Yevgeny Yerofeyev
© EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

KIEV, September 18. /TASS/. The lawyer of detained Russian citizen Yevgeny Yerofeyev facing trial on "terrorism charges" in Ukraine said she has received threats from Kiev’s main military prosecutor’s office.

Kiev’s authorities accuse Oksana Sokolovskaya of cooperating with Russia’s special services, including the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and the Federal Security Service (FSB).

"At the moment, the prosecutors are acting very harshly against me, I have received accusations from the military prosecutor’s office that I work for the GRU, the FSB and so on. I have been getting threats," she told TASS.

The lawyer dismissed the reports that the charges have been brought against Yerofeyev and another Russian citizen Alexander Alexandrov, stressing that the actions of Ukraine’s prosecutors are illegal.

"The procedure is invalid," she said, explaining that her client Yerofeyev received the charging document without her presence. "I was not allowed to familiarize with the case."

Russians Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev were captured by Ukraine’s forces in mid-May in the Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine. Kiev claimed the detainees allegedly were Russian servicemen.

Russia’s Defense Ministry later said the Russians "were not active servicemen of Russia’s Armed Forces at the moment when they were detained on May 17."