Ukrainian political prisoner Pavlo Hryb, 20, who had been abducted from Belarus by the Russian FSB to be then wrongfully charged with plotting a terror attack at a Russian school assembly has said "I plead not guilty" at todays' hearing in a Russian court.
"I completely disagree with the charge because during the investigation there were made critical errors that don't allow substantiating this charge to have grounds for prosecution," he said after the indictment had been handed down, according to a Censor.net correspondent, reporting from Russia's North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don.
It took the prosecutor six minutes to read out the indictment.
He said that Hryb acted under the pressure of a man who goes by the name of Stefan Kapinos, whom he met in 2013.
According to the indictment, in 2017 Pavlo made online friends with Tatyana Yershova, a Russian schoolgirl from Sochi. He communicated with her via Skype, when she supposedly said she does not like teachers and her fellow students, all of whom are Russians.
According to the investigation, Hryb was inciting her to make a bomb and set it off during a school assembly. Although Yershova was allegedly willing to do this, she did not commit the act, the prosecutor said.
Thus, Hryb is being charged under Article 205.1 Part 1 of Russia's Criminal Code on inducement to a terrorist attack.
Hryb's lawyer, Marina Dubrovina, added that serious violations had been recorded during the investigation, which means all further hearings must be stopped immediately.
As UNIAN reported earlier, in August 2017, Pavlo Hryb was abducted from Belarus by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and subsequently illegally arrested in the Russian Federation.
Trumped-up charges have been pressed against the teenager under Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code (an act of terrorism). Russian investigators accused Pavlo Hryb of allegedly plotting a terrorist attack at a school assembly in Sochi.
Pavlo Hryb has portal hypertension, which requires the daily intake of necessary medications and a special diet, the lack of which could become fatal. Russian authorities do not allow Ukrainian doctors to examine the political prisoner's health.