Ukrainian political prisoner Oleksandr Shumkov should return to Ukraine in two days, as Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova stated.
“On December 24, 2020, Oleksandr Shumkov will be released who is currently serving sentence in Tver Oblast, Russia. We have already agreed that the consul will meet him,” Denisova stated.
She noted that there are no objections from the side of Russia concerning his Ukrainian citizenship. According to Denisova, Shumkov will be transferred to the temporary custody and then a lot should be done to return him home, in Odesa.
“That is why all of us need to talk that Shumkov should not be kept there and he should be released and the consul will accompany him to Ukraine,” the ombudsman stated.
She also reminded that 130 Ukrainians are prosecuted in Russia on political grounds. They are the parents of 186 underage children.
Denisova also stated that she got a response from Russian Ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova about the possibility to visit the Ukrainian political prisoners.
As we reported earlier, Oleksandr Shumkov disappeared in September 2017. It had become known later that he was in the Russian detention center. But he was validated legally on the border with the Russian Federation on August 23, 2017.
The mother and friends of the Ukrainian do not believe that he voluntarily came to Russia as he was an active member of the far-right movement in Ukraine.
On December 4, 2018, Sevski court, Briansk Oblast sentenced Shumkov to 4 years in the general regime colony for participation in the extremist organization (Right Sector considered to be such in Russia).
On September 20, 2019, the aunt of political prisoner Lyudmyla Shumkova said that the Ukrainian special services involved her nephew in the special operation. Shumkov was abducted during one of them.
