Rights defenders urge to return Karpyuk and Klykh home

The citizens of Ukraine Stanislav Klykh and Nikolai Karpyuk, convicted in Chechnya, should be delivered from Russia after Nadezhda Savchenko, believe the Russian and Ukrainian rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot". However, they fear that Ukraine has not enough well-known Russian prisoners, who could be exchanged for them.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the criminal case against Stanislav Klykh and Nikolai Karpyuk was considered with the involvement of the jury by the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic since October 27, 2015. The panel of judges has unanimously recognized the both defendants guilty. Meanwhile, the jurors believe that Stanislav Klykh deserves leniency. Nikolai Karpyuk was sentenced to 22 years and 6 months of imprisonment, and Stanislav Klykh to 20 years of imprisonment.

The fact that Karpyuk and Klykh will certainly appeal against the verdict, was confirmed on May 27 by Marina Dubrovina, the advocate of Stanislav Klykh, in her interview to the Ukrainian edition "Facts". She also expressed the hope that in the near future it would be possible to release or exchange Klykh and Karpyuk.

The practice of exchanging prisoners between Russia and Ukraine should be continued, Lev Ponomaryov, the executive director of the All-Russian Movement "For Human Rights", is sure.

"I think we should focus on the next stage, so that in two more resonant trials – Klykh-Karpyuk and film director Sentsov – we could achieve a similar transfer to Ukraine in exchanged for Russians. We now should understand for whom, and initiate this process," Mr Ponomaryov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

At the same time, Sasha Romantsova, the Project Manager at the Centre of Civil Liberties, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that while "there are 31 Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia, in Ukraine, except for the activist Anastasia Leonova, there are in fact no Russian political prisoners."

According to Ms Romantsova, the Ukrainian party has not enough well-known Russians, who could be exchanged for Sentsov, Kolchenko, Klykh or Karpyuk.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.