Kyiv demands access by Ukrainian or foreign doctors to Ukrainian citizen Pavlo Hryb in Russian jail
KYIV. Feb 8 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has expressed its protest over the refusal to allow Ukrainian doctors to examine a Ukrainian citizen, Pavlo Hryb, arrested in Russia.
"We are seeing the deterioration of Pavlo Hryb's health in jail and the non-provision of medical assistance as a form of pressure on him for the sake of the investigators getting necessary evidence. Such actions demonstrate Russia's disregard not only for the European Court of Human Rights judgment ECHR - LE2.3r of October 6, 2017, but also for the fundamental human rights," the Ukrainian ministry stated said in a comment on its official site on Thursday.
Russia must immediately allow Ukrainian or foreign doctors to examine Hryb to assess his health condition and give necessary medical recommendations, the ministry said.
International partners should increase diplomatic pressure on Russia and speak out in defense of the life, safety and rights of the Ukrainian citizens who are "being held on Russian territory illegally," the ministry said.
It was reported earlier that Ihor Hryb, a former officer of the Ukrainian State Border Service, said on August 28 that Russian special services abducted his 19-year-old son Pavlo while he was visiting Gomel, Belarus, on August 24 to meet with a girl with whom he had previously communicated only online. Pavlo was to return home the same day. As he did not then come back, Ihor Hryb traveled to Gomel to look for him.
Ihor Hryb learned upon arriving in Belarus that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) department for the Krasnodar territory in Sochi had declared Pavlo Hryb wanted on terrorism charges.
It emerged on September 7 that Pavlo Hryb was being held at a pretrial detention facility in Russia's Krasnodar.
His custody has been extended until March 4, 2018.
On February 1, 2018, a court in Krasnodar rejected the defense appeal against Hryb's arrest on the ground of his health problems, lawyer Marina Dubrovina told Interfax.
On the same day Ihor Hryb said that his son was in unsatisfactory condition and received no proper medical assistance. There are no medical specialists for Pavel's illness in Krasnodar and no one can provide the necessary medical assistance, his father said.