Ukrainian Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko was launched Sunday after greater than 4 years in Russian custody in Crimea, in response to RFE/RL.
Yesypenko was arrested and jailed on March 10, 2021, in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, on suspicion of gathering intelligence for Ukraine, a cost he denied.
In February 2022, a Russian-installed courtroom in Crimea sentenced the twin Russian-Ukrainian citizen to 6 years on espionage costs that he, his employer and rights teams mentioned had been fabricated. Months later, he was additionally charged with possessing explosives — a declare he denies. Prosecutors later acknowledged the grenade present in his automobile didn’t bear his fingerprints.
The highest Moscow-controlled courtroom in Crimea later decreased Yesypenko’s sentence to 5 years. Throughout his trial, he testified that he was tortured with electrical shocks to extract a false confession.
“For greater than 4 years, Vlad was arbitrarily punished for against the law he didn’t commit. He paid too excessive of a worth for reporting the reality about what was going down inside Russia-occupied Crimea,” RFE/RL chief government Stephen Capus mentioned, including that Yesypenko had been “tortured, bodily and psychologically.”
Capus thanked the U.S. and Ukrainian governments for “working with us to make sure that Vlad’s unjust detention was not extended.”
In a put up on Telegram, Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak thanked everybody who helped safe Yesypenko’s launch.
He was freed shortly after longtime RFE/RL correspondent Ihar Karnei was released from prison in Belarus, following a uncommon go to by a senior U.S. official.