Ukrainian political prisoner Chyrniy released

History professor Oleksiy Chyrniy, a Ukrainian political prisoner who was convicted in Russia on charges of plotting terrorist attacks in the occupied Crimea, has already been released.

"Ukrainian political prisoner Oleksiy Chyrniy is free! Today, he was released from the high-security penal colony No.15 in the town of Bataysk of the Rostov region. Oleksiy, welcome to the Motherland," Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova posted on Facebook.

Denisova reminded that Chyrniy had been serving a seven-year sentence due to an illegal court sentence over alleged plotting of terrorist attacks in the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea.

"Oleksiy was illegally held in several high-security penal colonies in the territory of the Russian Federation – in Magadan, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don. Today, he was released from the high-security penal colony No.15 in the town of Bataysk of the Rostov region. Under supervision of the armed guards, he was transferred to the Russian-Ukrainian border and forcedly deported from Russia, not being allowed to communicate with his mother and father, who had come to meet him from the temporarily occupied Crimea," the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights noted.

Denisova informed that Oleksiy Chyrniy had already crossed the Ukrainian-Russian border and arrived at the "Milove" Ukrainian border crossing point in Luhansk region.

As reported, according to the falsified investigation case files, Oleksiy Chyrniy was a member of a "Crimean terrorist group" allegedly created by Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov. After Chyrniy had been detained, he entered into a plea bargain and gave testimony as a prosecution witness. In 2015, Chyrniy was sentenced to seven years in prison.