Ruslan, your offender

The Court of Appeal of the Ivano-Frankivsk region acquitted Ukrainian journalist Ruslan Kotsabu, sentenced to three and a half years in prison for publishing a video on the Internet with a call to refuse to mobilize. This was reported by his lawyer Tatyana Montyan.

"Completely justified !!! Hurray!" - wrote Montyan. The court did not find a crime in the actions of Kotsaba. The journalist was released in the courtroom.

At the meeting, Montyan said that an article on the prevention of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should not be charged with a journalist, since there were no applications or complaints about Kotsaba from the Armed Forces. In addition, the mobilization, of which the journalist is accused, is not included in the competence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. None of the witnesses who acted in court said about the influence of Kotsaba’s appeal on mobilization, the lawyer noted.

Kotsaba himself emphasized that he is the first and only prisoner of conscience in Ukraine recognized by international organizations. The journalist also said that the prosecutors from the first day tried to drag out the trial.

On January 17, 2015, Kotsaba published an appeal on a personal YouTube channel, in which he called for refusing to refuse to mobilize, the beginning of which President Petro Poroshenko announced a few days earlier. The journalist described the war in the Donbass as civil and stated that he himself would prefer a prison mobilization.

On February 7, the SBU detained Kotsaba. The next day the journalist was arrested.

On February 11, 2015, Amnesty International recognized Kotsab as a prisoner of conscience and called on the Ukrainian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” to free the arrested. “The position of Ruslan Kotsaba can be treated differently,” said Tatyana Mazur, Director of AI in Ukraine. “But arresting him for expressing a civil position, the Ukrainian authorities violates the fundamental rights of a person to express an opinion that Ukrainians defended on the Maidan.”

On May 12, the College of the Ivano-Frankivsk City Court found Kotsaba guilty under Part 1 of Article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (the obstruction of the legal activity of the army in a special period), which provides for five to eight years of the colony. The period below the lower limit was appointed to the journalist, pointing out the mitigating circumstances: the defendant was first prosecuted, and in the wild he had two young children.

The second prosecution - in part 1 of Article 111 of the Code (state treason) - judges from a journalist were removed.

The arrest imposed on the Kotsaba property seized during the search - money, bank card, electronics - was canceled. At the same time, 4975 hryvnias for conducting examinations were recovered from the convict.

In the debate of the parties that passed on May 11, the prosecutor requested a colony for the defendant with confiscation of property for the defendant.