Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

19:35:09
04/02/2019

ukraina.ru/ik.arhano.ru

The Pavlograd city district court of the Dnepropetrovsk region extended up to March 24th the validity of the measure of restraint in the form of detention imposed on the Brazilian Rafael Lusvarghi, who fought for the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

This was reported on January 25th by the prosecutor’s office of Kiev on their Facebook page.

“In court hearing, in accordance with the motion of the prosecutor, the validity of the measure of restraint in the form of detention imposed on the defendant was extended for 60 days, namely up to March 24th 2019”

it is said in the statement

In addition, according to the motion of the prosecutor, the court attached all written proof of the prosecution to the materials of judicial proceedings and also reconsidered three videos confirming the alleged participation of the defendant in illegal armed groups.

At the beginning of May of last year in Kiev nationalists from “C14” captured Rafael Lusvarghi, who fought in Donbass on the side of the DPR army. The Brazilian was in one of the monasteries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP). The fact is that his lawyer, Valentin Rybin, who had already entered into the case after the first-instance decision had been made, obtained the repeal of the sentence in the appeal instance. The case was sent for retrial. Rafael’s measure of restraint wasn’t changed and he actually stayed outside. For some time he found himself in one of the Kiev hostels, but was forced to leave, noticing the close attention of the guests. So he ended up in the monastery of the UOC MP, where he found safety and shelter.

Already on May 7th Lusvarghi was arrested by the court for two months, then the term of detention was repeatedly extended.

Earlier the Ukraine.ru publication reported that Lusvarghi, who was arrested by the court of the Dnepropetrovsk region, was included in a list for exchange of persons held in connection with the conflict in Donbass. This was said to journalists by the head of the working group of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) on exchanging prisoners of war Olga Kobtseva.

The next court hearing on this criminal proceeding will be held on February 14th at 10:30. The court plans to interrogate four prosecution witnesses, including participants of the ATO, and then proceed to the consideration of motions stage.

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