MOSCOW, September 12 (RAPSI) – Ukraine won't extradite Pavel Ushevets nicknamed Grisha Mustang Wanted to Russia where he faces charges for the alleged placing of Ukrainian flag on a Moscow skyscraper, RIA Novosti reported on Friday, citing Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister.
Ushevets and his fans should know that Ukraine won't hand him or any other Ukrainian national over to Russia, the agency quoted Herashchenko as having said on Facebook.
The young man claimed that he was involved in the August 20 star-painting accident, when a Ukrainian flag was spotted on the spire of the skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment in central Moscow. The Soviet star on the spire was painted blue and yellow, the national colors of Ukraine.
An attorney for Alexander Pogrebov, one of the six suspects in the case, said that Ushevets had been placed on the international wanted list. He faces the same vandalism and hooliganism charges as other defendants in the case.
Four young people – Alexander Shirokozhukh, Alexander Pogrebov, Yevgenia Korotkova and Anna Lepyoshkina – with special climbing equipment were detained in the aftermath of the incident, charged with hooliganism and placed on house arrest.
The four suspects said they were jumping from the high-rise building with parachutes when someone else painted the star and hoisted a Ukrainian flag on its spire.
They face up to seven years in prison if convicted.
The fifth suspect, Vladimir Podrezov from St. Petersburg, was arrested a few days later. Unlike the other four suspects, the court ruled to detain him until October 19.
The sixth suspect in the star-painting case, Kirill Ishutin, was arrested on drug possession charges. He faces up to 10 years in prison.