Photo credit: Serhiy Nuzhnenko, Radio Liberty Irpin municipal court did not uphold the petition filed by convicted Boris Herman, who asked to be set free on parole. Herman was sentenced to 4.5 years for organizing an murderous attempt against famous Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, as”Dzerkalo tyzhdnya” reported. Herman's defense requested to release Herman because of his illness. The full court ruling will be made public on August 7. The decision may be appealed within seven days. After being detained, Borys Herman insisted he was innocent. But afterwards, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. However, Herman's sentence was classified, so the only confirmation that he was serving his sentence was the statements of law enforcement officers. Even the penitentiary to which the man was sent was not known. IMI reported, on April 15, 2019, Borys Herman aked to release him on parole due to his  disease. On August 30, 2018, May 30, 2018 Arkadiy Bavchenko, who emigrated to Ukraine, was shot dead in Kyiv. As Radio Liberty informed, Babchenko left Russia in February of 2017. He said he did this because Russian authorities could start a criminal case against him at any time. Later on, it was known that death of Arkadiy Babchenko was staged. This was announced by the head of SBU Vasyl Hrytsak on May 30 at his briefing in Kyiv, Hromadske reports. He also added that Russian special services recruited citizen of Ukraine to kill Babchenko, and paid him 30 thousand dollars for this (leaving 10 more thousand dollars from the total amount allocated for this to himself). The agent who offered the money planned to leave Ukraine and go to Russia via third country after the crime, Hromadske reports. He paid 15 thousand dollars to the person who was supposed to carry out assassination in advance. The Russian agent, according to Hrytsak, also had an assignment to purchase weapons and explosives and to make stashes on the territory of central Ukraine – 30 assault rifles, hundreds of kilograms of explosives, as well as mortar shells and ammunition. This agent was detained in Kyiv three hours before the briefing, head of SBU informed.