MOSCOW, October 4 - RAPSI. The Russian Embassy in Libya hopes to secure the reconsideration of the sentence passed on two citizens, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich said at a press briefing in Moscow on Thursday.

"The embassy is doing everything possible, so that the sentence passed on Aleander Shadrov and Vladimir Dolgov will be reconsidered and the situation will be resolved as quickly as possible," he said. Lukashevich noted that an appeal was filed with the Libyan Supreme Military Court after the sentence was announced.

Two Russians, 19 Ukrainians and three Belarusians were arrested in Libya last fall. They were charged with supporting Muammar Qaddafi's forces during the hostilities. In June, the Libyan authorities sentenced a Russian accused of coordinating the group to life imprisonment. The other defendants in the case were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Earlier, the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian foreign ministries said they would seek their citizens' release.

In February 2011, mass rallies broke out in Libya demanding Qaddafi's resignation. They escalated into an armed tug-of-war between the ruling regime and the NATO-backed opposition forces. The opposition formed the Transitional National Council in Benghazi, which it acknowledged as the only legitimate authority in the country. Qaddafi was killed by opposition troops near Sirte on October 20.