Pro-Ukrainian activist Vladimir Balukh had his sentence commuted by a month

The Crimean Supreme Court commuted the sentence of pro-Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Balukh, who was sentenced to five years in a penal colony, for a month. It is reported by Interfax.

Judge Elena Spasenova changed the sentence to four years and 11 months in a penal colony, leaving the fine of 10,000 rubles unchanged. Balukh decided not to participate in the meeting via video link and, according to the secretary, "refused to leave the cell."

• On January 16, 2018, Balukh was sentenced to three years and five months in prison in a colony-settlement, as well as a fine of 10,000 rubles. According to investigators, the police found cartridges and TNT bombs in his house. The Crimean Human Rights Group believes that prohibited items could have been planted in the activist's house.
• In December 2017, was opened a new criminal case against Balukh for disorganizing the activities of the temporary detention center (part 2 of article 321 of the Criminal Code), when the activist was imprisoned in the temporary detention center on charges of storing ammunition. According to the investigation, Balukh hit the head of the temporary detention facility, Valery Tkachenko. Balukh says that the employee himself beat him and insulted him.

On July 5, 2018, in the aggregate of two criminal cases, he was sentenced to five years in a penal colony and a fine of 10,000 rubles. * Volodymyr Balukh is included in the "list of Sentsov" - a list of political prisoners whose release the convicted director demands. OVD-Info collected known information about 88 people associated with Ukraine and persecuted by the Russian authorities. Among these people there are both those deprived of liberty and those sentenced to suspended sentences, which means that they have limited movement.