Ukrainian film-maker Oleh Sentsov and Crimean activist Oleksandr Kolchenko, who have been imprisoned in Russia, signed documents for extradition from that country to Ukraine early in April, according to Kolchenko`s lawyer Svetlana Sidorkina.
The documents, which were signed early in April, must have already arrived at the Justice Ministry of the Russian Federation, she told the Moscow-based radio station Echo of Moscow. However, the ministry has not confirmed that fact yet.
Sidorkina guessed that another two Ukrainian citizens Hennadiy Afanasyev and Yuriy Soloshenko, who are also imprisoned in Russia, had already signed their extradition documents.
Sentsov and Kolchenko in August 2015 were sentenced by a Russian court to 20 and 10 years in prison, respectively. They were accused of creating an extremist organization and plotting terrorist acts in Crimea. Both suspects refused to admit their guilt. The Memorial human rights center designated them as prisoners of conscience.
Afanasyev, who was involved in the Sentsov-Kolchenko case, was sentenced to seven years in Russia. He is now serving his sentence in a correctional facility in the Russian town of Syktyvkar.
Former director of Ukraine`s Poltava-based Znamya defense plant Yuriy Soloshenko was accused of spying in favor of Ukraine and was sentenced by a Russian court in October 2015 to six years in a penal colony.
As UNIAN reported earlier, captive Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who on March 22 was sentenced to 22 years in prison in Russia, filled in all the documents needed for her extradition to Ukraine.
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