MOSCOW, November 29 (RAPSI) – Ukrainian citizen Sergey Litvinov has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against an 8.5-year prison sentence given to him by a Russian court for armed assault, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday citing his attorney Victor Parshutkin.

Litvinov was convicted in April.  The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine voiced a strong protest over this ruling claiming that the case had been framed up. In August, the Rostov Regional Court upheld the decision.

Investigators claim that in 2014, Litvinov conspiring with two representatives of Ukrainian security agencies made an armed assault upon a Russian national in the Lugansk region in Ukraine. They stole two cars belonging to the victim and injured him.

Earlier, Litvinov was suspected of killing two Donbass civilians but his implication in these crimes has not been confirmed.

In November, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ordered that Litvinov should be paid 1,000 rubles ($15) in compensation for unwarranted prosecution, according to Parshutkin. He said Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office had submitted apologies to his client for prosecution on suspicion of killing two or more persons and using prohibited methods and means of warfare.