Lawyer Believes Case Of RIA Novosti Ukraine Portal Head To Close Soon

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd August, 2019) There are indicators that the now over-year-long case of RIA Novosti Ukraine portal head Kirill Vyshinsky could be closed soon, lawyer Valentin Rybin said on Friday.

"According to the information that I have, it seems to me that the issue of Kirill Vyshinsky will soon be resolved as well, and he will be able to return to normal life," Rybin said in an interview with journalist Anatoly Shariy on YouTube, asked whether the prisoner exchange process had anything to do with the delay in reviewing Vyshinsky's appeal regarding his arrest extension.

The prisoner exchange is a reference to Rybin's earlier comments to Sputnik in which he said that his clients � Russian servicemen Alexander Baranov and Maxim Odintsov, who were abducted by the Security Service of Ukraine on the Crimean border in 2016; and Evgeny Mefedov, a Russian arrested in Ukraine in 2014 and charged with separatism � would be part of a swap of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine.

Vyshinsky was detained on May 15, 2018 and charged with treason. Thomas Greminger, the secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), while commenting the situation, said that all member countries were obliged to create the conditions necessary for journalists to conduct their work and therefore not interrupt the work of the media, as per international standards. Harlem Desir, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, has expressed his disappointment in the situation and demanded that Vyshinsky be released as soon as possible.