KYIV. June 9 (Interfax) - Ukraine will do all it can so that the 19 Ukrainians convicted in Libya return home before they serve their sentences, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Voloshyn said on Shuster LIVE television program on Friday evening.
The situation surrounding the conviction is quite complicated, he said.
"On the one hand, ten years of jail is an excessively cruel and unjustified sentence. People should answer for what they have done. And what did the 19 citizens of Ukraine do? They have been charged with working for the Muammar Gaddafi regime by repairing military hardware," Voloshyn said.
If Gaddafi had won the civil war, "these people would have been back to Ukraine with money long ago," he said.
However, Voloshyn admitted that he could not say that the Ukrainians were completely innocent.
"They were not gathering figs there. These are people with a military education who knew what they were doing. Hundreds of Ukrainians, such as doctors and cooks, are in Tripoli now, and no questions are being asked," he said.
Voloshyn vowed that the Ukrainians would return home soon, although he did not name particular dates.
"The Ukrainians are being held not just by the Libyan authorities but by a revolutionary brigade. The Libyans have consolidated their international position by handing down this sentence. You should understand who we are dealing with today. Special influence mechanisms and some trump cards are needed," he said.
"However, nobody will serve the 10-year sentence, I give a million percent guarantee," he said.
It was reported earlier that the Tripoli Military Court sentenced 19 Ukrainian citizens on June 4 to 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting the Gaddafi regime. The same court also sentenced one Russian citizen to life in prison and gave 10-year prison sentences to one more Russian and three Belarusian citizens.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said an agreement had been reached on appealing the sentence with the Tripoli Supreme Military Court. The Libyan law stipulates that such an appeal must be filed within 30 days from the moment the original sentence was handed down.