The Kyiv Court of Appeal rejected the appeal against the pre-trial restraint for Serhiy Gnezdilov, a soldier of the 56th separate motorized infantry brigade of Mariupol, who publicly left his unit without permission. As a result, he will remain in custody, UNN reports with reference to Suspilne.
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At the beginning of the hearing, the soldier's lawyer, Oleksandr Shadrin, asked the court to take a close look at his client and emphasized that the case should be reclassified from "desertion" to "unauthorized leaving of the unit.
"We have a detention report on Serhiy, which does not specify what he was detained for: there is no description of the plot. It simply indicates the number of the article (we are talking about Article 408 of the Criminal Code - desertion - ed.) If Serhiy had left his trench during the fighting, it is clear that this would be desertion. Not a single investigative procedural action has been conducted since October 11. Why keep him in custody? Will he influence commanders or others? Or will he flee to Russia, with which he has been fighting for years? Please reconsider the preventive measure," Shadrin said.
Gnedzdilov himself called the accusations "unfounded and groundless" and the case itself "publicly demonstrative" and stated that since he has been in the pre-trial detention center, he has never been interrogated or subjected to any procedural actions.
"I don't know why the prosecution does not qualify my case as an SZH. For the last year, I have been constantly talking about the need to reform the mobilization system, about the need for rotations. The prosecutor writes that I intended to discredit the military authorities, but we do not have them. We have a military command. But corruption and the failure of mobilization can discredit the military command. It seems that if it wasn't for my official statement (about the NWC - ed.), no one would have been looking for me. I consider this a publicly demonstrative case, which is why I am charged with Article 408," he said.
For his part, the prosecutor said that the court of first instance had "made a fair decision" on October 11 and asked not to change the measure of restraint against Gnezdilov.
"I ask not to change the measure of restraint. I believe that this measure of restraint is justified and the risks regarding Gnezdilov continue to this day," he said.
After the parties' arguments, the Kyiv Court of Appeal rejected the appeal and left Hnezdilov in custody.
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On October 11, according to the decision of the Pechersk District Court of the capital, Gnezdilov was taken into custody for two months.
On October 15, Serhiy Gnezdilov's lawyer, Oleksandr Shadrin, told Suspilne that he had filed an appeal against the court's decision.