A citizen of Odessa Alexander Lutsenko, who was released in a prisoner exchange of December 27, 2018, decided to return to his family in Ukraine, despite the risk of being arrested. He told about it at a briefing hosted by DAN.
Lutsenko is an Afghanistan veteran, a participant of the events of the spring of 2014 in Odessa on the side of “anti-Maidan”. He was detained by the Security Service of Ukraine in April 2015. The man was accused of separatism, treason and other crimes. By the time of the exchange, he was in the dock. The man got to the Republic by chance.
He told that his family was repeatedly threatened during his stay in the DPR. He decided to return to the territory of Ukraine so as not to endanger his family. “I have a wife and children in Ukraine,” he said.
To be reminded, the Ombudsman has had a meeting with the Head of UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission Fiona Frazer recently. The discussion was devoted to organizing the next stage of the prisoner exchange. According to Morozova, she called the UN representative upon to follow up the case of Lutsenko family.
At the briefing, Lutsenko told that a criminal proceeding in his case is still ongoing, which is another reason for him to return to Ukraine – he wants to deal with this issue.
“I made this decision because at the last hearing of my case the judge told me that I have to return and appear at some other hearings to finish the procedure appropriately. If I don’t appear, they will declare me internationally wanted,” he underlined.
Most recently, the prisoner exchange between Ukraine and the DPR transpired on December 27, 2017. It took place outside Gorlovka and became the most large-scale since the beginning of the conflict. The Ukrainian side handed over 160 persons, and 57 persons were transferred to Kiev. It was later reported that some people released by Ukrainian authorities did not receive their documents back, and some people had no relation to the conflict in Donbass.
