Moscow court doesn't accept letter from Ministry of Defense in Sushchenko case

Mark Feygin, the lawyer of illegally arrested Ukrinform journalist Roman Sushchenko said that Lefortovo District Court of Moscow didn't accept the letter from The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. The letter in which Directorate has confirmed that Ukrinform correspondent Roman Sushchenko is not a staff employee of the Defense Intelligence. The lawyer told this news to Ukrinform.

"The court didn't accept the document from the Main Intelligence Directorate, which clearly states that the Roman Sushchenko is not their employee. The court reasoned that the document is written in Ukrainian. Recall that in the case of Savchenko situation was exactly the opposite - they dind not accept the document because it is not in Ukrainian,"- Feygin said.

The lawyer also clarified that the investigator leading the case had taken this document into consideration.

Earlier, Feygin protested the fact that his experts were not engaged into appointed evidentiary analysis.

As IMI reported earlier, The Lefortovsky District Court of Moscow has extended pre-trial detention term of Ukrinform correspondent Roman Sushchenko until April 30, 2017.

Ukrinform stated that their correspondent in France Roman Sushchenko was arrested in Moscow and accused of “espionage” on Sept.30.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed detaining of an Ukrinform correspondent, Roman Sushchenko. FSB labeling him as a Ukrainian intelligence officer who allegedly deliberately collected classified information on activities of the armed forces and the national guard of the Russian Federation. There is a criminal case on espionage charges (Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code), the investigation is currently underway.

The Lefortove court resolved to prolong the arrest of Sushchenko for two more months on Oct.1.

Defence appealed the decision of the Lefortovo court to arrest Sushchenko in France.

The Moscow City Court has dismissed the appeal of defense team of an Ukrinform journalist Roman Sushchenko on Oct.27.

The Moscow Lefortovo Court resolved on Nov. 28 to extend the arrest of Sushchenko until the 30th of January 2017.