(MENAFN- UkrinForm) Ukraine is awaiting the announcement of the date of the Court of Appeal hearing in the case of National Guard member Vitaliy Markiv after the end of coronavirus quarantine in Italy.
"We are waiting for the end of coronavirus quarantine in Italy for a hearing of the Court of Appeal to be announced. We are sure that we have an extremely good position," Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said during an hour of questions to the Government in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
He added that Ukraine would also continue to make diplomatic efforts for releasing Markiv at the intergovernmental level.
The minister reminded that last year the National Police reopened the investigation into the circumstances of the murder of Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli.
"A few weeks ago, a crime re-enactment was conducted which proves one hundred percent that Markiv could not be involved in the murder. Therefore, we make efforts and believe that Markiv will be released. I really want this to happen in the coming months, the interior minister stressed.
On May 25, a group of experts from the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise and the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute conducted a crime re-enactment in the town of Slovyansk within the National Police's criminal investigation into the murder of Andrea Rocchelli and Andrei Mironov on May 24, 2014.
In summer of 2017, Ukraine's National Guard member Vitaliy Markiv was detained in Italy on charges of alleged involvement in the murder of Italian photographer Andrea Rocchelli and his Russian interpreter Andrei Mironov. They died as a result of a mortar shelling at the foot of the Karachun Mountain near Slovyansk town on May 24, 2014. At that time, the territory in Donetsk region was controlled by the militants.
On July 12, a court in the Italian town of Pavia sentenced Ukraine's National Guard member Vitaliy Markiv to 24 years in prison.
Markiv's lawyers called the sentence "political" and declared the intention to file the appeal. Later, the lawyers said the court of appeal could deliver its judgment in the spring of 2020.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine to make every effort for returning Markiv to the homeland.
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