KYIV. June 11 (Interfax) - The lawyer for the Russian man, Yevgeny Yerofeyev, who was captured in Luhansk region almost a month ago, has said that Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) officers, who are probing the criminal case against her client, have been exerting pressure on him and also offered him political asylum in Ukraine.
"He is being under very serious pressure. He is being offered political asylum," Oksana Sokolovska told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.
"Investigators and the prison staff and all the others are putting very serious pressure on him. He is being offered political asylum, his family is being offered political asylum, that having been accused of betraying Russia he will be killed in Russia, once he is back there, or will be locked up for the rest of his life, and so on and so forth," the defense lawyer said.
In her view, Yerofeyev is being pressured into "opening whatever cards he can open."
Asked who exactly is offering him political asylum, Sokolovska said it is an SBU investigative body, adding that Ukrainian investigators have offered Yerofeyev a minimum sentence, if he cooperates.