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Two Russian nationals detained in Libya meet with lawyer for the first time

During the meeting, the prison staffers remained in the same room, refusing to leave the attorney alone with his clients, the president of the Russian non-profit organization

© AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev

MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. Two employees of the Russian non-profit organization "Foundation for National Values Protection", detained in Libya earlier, have met with their attorney for the first time, the foundation’s president Alexander Malkevich informed.

"The meeting took place on October 6 and lasted for over two hours. During this time, the prison staffers remained in the same room, refusing to leave the attorney alone with his clients. So there has been no attorney-client privilege," Malkevich wrote on his Telegram channel on Monday.

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Two employees of Russian non-profit organization detained in Libya

The foundation’s president noted that the lawyer "was not granted the materials of the case, claiming they are highly classified." "That is, an attorney has to defend people without knowing what they are accused of and what their accusations are based on," he stressed.

On July 5, Malkevich informed that two employees of the non-profit, Maxim Shugalei and Samer Hasan Ali were detained in Libya. The Russian nationals were accused of trying to influence upcoming elections in the country. According to the head of the foundation, the detained Russians "in no way meddled in the electoral processes on the Libyan territory, their work solely amounted to monitoring the situation in the country." "The employees of the foundation were detained back in May; however, the reports on their detention reached the media only on July 5. Since the detention of its employees, the Foundation for National Values Protection has been holding private talks on their release," he said.

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