MOSCOW. Oct 26 (Interfax) - The Russian Supreme Court has found legal the judgment to Ukrainian citizens Mykola Karpiuk and Stanislav Klykh, who were sentenced to 22.5 and 20 years in prison, respectively, for involvement in the hostilities against the federal forces during the first Chechen campaign as members of the Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian People's Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO).
"The Chechen Supreme Court's verdict is left unchanged, the appeals by the lawyers are declined," the judge has pronounced the judgment.
The lawyers asked to acquit their clients in the court.
"The confessions voiced before the jurymen have been obtained by tortures. The 'truth serum' has been injected into Klykh, he has been tortured by electric shock," lawyer Marina Dubrovina said.
She also asked the second-instance court to focus on the materials, which allegedly substantiated the alibi evidence of her clients.
"We were not allowed to present the alibi, which the defendants have possessed, to the jury," the lawyer said.
In turn, the prosecutor said that the judgment had been legal and just.
"The reasons presented in the appeals cannot be sustained. There have been no violations, while the first-instance court had heard the case," he said.
Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada deputy Nadiya Savchenko arrived in Moscow to back her fellow citizens.
It had been reported earlier that a jury in Grozny (Chechnya) had convicted Karpiuk and Klykh on May 19, 2016. The Russian investigation had found that Klykh and Karpiuk had been members of the UNA-UNSO (an organization banned in Russia) and fought against Russian federal forces in Chechnya at the end of 1994 and in early 1995. In particular, they were charged with fighting Russian troops in Grozny, including in the area of Minutka square and near the presidential palace.