Russian Justice Ministry instructs to prepare documents for possible transfer of four convicts to Ukraine

The Justice Ministry of the Russian Federation has instructed the Penitentiary Service to prepare the documents for solving the issue of transfer of four convicts to Ukraine.

Russia is going to transfer Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Gennady Afanasyev and Yuri Soloshenko, RIA-Novosti news agency reports with reference to the Ministry’s press service.

“On the basis of inquiries from the Ukrainian side received on March 10, 2016, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation sent the Federal Penitentiary Service the letters dated March 25 with the instructions to prepare the necessary documents for solving the issue of transfer of the mentioned convicts, as well as to check the presence or absence of grounds, preventing this transfer. The same day, the appropriate notification was sent to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine,” the press service informed.

The Justice Ministry stressed that the final decision would be made by the federal courts of Russia.

April 7, the Ukrainian Justice Ministry sent Russia the repeated inquiry about the transfer of four Ukrainians convicted in Russia.