Ukrainian Blogger Jailed After Campaigning Against Army Draft
IVANO-FRANKIVSK, Ukraine -- A court in Ukraine has sentenced a blogger to prison who had urged conscientious objectors not to fight against Russia-backed separatists in the country’s east.
The Ivano-Frankivsk City Court in western Ukraine found Ruslan Kotsaba, 49, guilty of obstructing the country’s armed forces on May 12 and sentenced him to 3 1/2 years in jail.
The judge ruled that the time Kotsaba spent in pretrial detention since his arrest in February 2015 must be counted as "one day for two." Therefore, it is considered that Kotsaba has already served two years, six months, and eight days of his sentence.
Kotsaba was arrested after he posted a 12-minute video urging people to dodge the military draft. The clip was viewed more than 300,000 times.
Kotsaba's lawyer, Ihor Sulyma, told RFE/RL that his client's sentence will be appealed.
With reporting by AFP
Poroshenko Ally With No Legal Background Appointed As Top Ukraine Prosecutor
Ukraine’s parliament has appointed a close ally of President Petro Poroshenko with no legal background to become the country's new prosecutor-general.
Addressing lawmakers on May 12, Poroshenko said Yuriy Lutsenko would build public trust in the prosecution service.
Lutsenko, 51, is a former interior minister and head of Poroshenko's parliamentary faction. His university degree is in engineering.
Earlier on May 12, parliament approved a bill removing a requirement that only a person with a legal background can take the post of prosecutor-general, clearing the way for Poroshenko to put forward Lutsenko for the role.
The post is seen by the West as crucial for Ukraine to tackle entrenched corruption.
Poroshenko fired the previous prosecutor-general after being criticized for failing to indict corrupt officials.
Based on reporting by Reuters, Interfax, and Bloomberg
Ukraine's Ombudsman Wants Closure Of Ukrainian Website That Leaked Journalists' Data
KYIV -- Ukraine's ombudswoman Valeria Lutkovska urged the country’s authorities on May 12 to shut down a Kyiv-based website for "violating Ukrainian laws on information and personal data." *
Earlier this week, the website Myrotvorets revealed the personal information of more than 4,000 journalists who it said were illegally accredited by Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Lutkovska's call comes a day after the OSCE's representative on freedom of the media, Dunja Mijatovic, expressed concerns about the safety of journalists in Ukraine following the leaks, after which some of the journalists on the list received threats.
On May 11, Kyiv's city prosecutor's office said it had launched investigations into the leaks, calling the matter an "obstruction of the professional activities of journalists."
* An earlier version of this story misidentified the ombudswoman as Russia's presidential rights ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova.
Crimea Realities Chief Says Ban Won't Stop Website
Pro-Russian authorities in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula have blocked access to RFE/RL's news website, Krym.Realii or Crimea Realities. The de facto prosecutor of Crimea, Natalia Poklonskaya, said on May 12 that Russia's Internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, had launched measures to shut down the site. The website's chief, Volodymyr Prytula, said in Kyiv that there are ways for readers to get around the ban. (RFE/RL's Current Time TV)
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
