Ukraine Security Service’ has finished proceedings against RT contributor, Graham Phillips, and he is about to be handed over to the consul of the British embassy in Kiev, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry told RT.
Almost a day after Phillips was detained at a checkpoint near
Mariupol in eastern Ukraine on May 20, the British Foreign Office
officially confirmed the incident and said it is “in contact
with the Ukrainian authorities.”
On Tuesday it was not quite clear who were the people involved in
the arrest, reports from the scene varying from National Guards
to Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU).
However, on Wednesday RT managed to talk to the country’s Defense
Ministry, which said the arrest had been carried out by the
National Guard.
“According to our information, [Phillips] was detained at a
National Guard checkpoint, which does not report to us... This
journalist was then handed over to law enforcement officials for
the violations he committed,” Bogdan Senyk, deputy head of
the Defense Ministry’s press service, said.
Later in the day, the National Guard also confirmed its role in
the detention.
Ukraine building a case against @RT_com contributor @GrahamWP_UK, Interior Minister just told me he was caught holding an automatic rifle
— Simon Ostrovsky (@SimonOstrovsky) May 21, 2014
According to Senyk, Phillips was detained “because he was
filming facilities which are forbidden from being filmed. And
this was pointed out to him. His footage proved the violations,
as we were told.”
“He gave explanations to the law enforcement officials – the
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) – as to why and how he was
filming those military facilities,” he added.
The proceedings against Phillips are currently concluded and “he will be – or might have been already handed – to the [British] consul,” Senyk said.
The press-service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also said
it’s the country’s Security Service (the SBU), which should be
contacted about the whereabouts of Graham Phillips.
“Foreign citizens on Ukrainian territory are in the SBU’s
competence. Especially, if those issues concern somebody going
missing,” the press-service told RT.
However, the SBU refused to comment on the fate of the journalist
when contacted by RT.
The whereabouts of the British journalist, who has contributed to
RT reports from the east of Ukraine, have been causing growing
concern since he was detained by pro-Kiev forces.
Detainment captured on video
The video, which was taken moments before the arrest, shows armed men stopping Graham and demanding him to show his papers.
The man, who shot the footage, asked for even his voice to be
deleted from the video, saying that he’s concerned for his
safety.
In his last phone call with RT, soon after the arrest,
35-year-old Phillips said that his bulletproof jacket and helmet
were taken, but he was generally treated “OK” by the
captors.
During the “interrogation oriented” dialogue, he was
asked if he is a spy and was questioned on his working
arrangement with RT and his support of “separatism,” the
journalist said.
After that contact was lost with Phillips as a source familiar
with the issue informed that his phone as well photo and video
recording equipment were confiscated.
UN Human Rights Office ‘closely watching’ incident
The UK Foreign Office only went as far as to confirm Philips’s
arrest. Earlier, in correspondence with RT the office said they
don’t work with third parties in such incidents.
“We are aware of the reports of the detention of the British
national and are looking into them. We stand ready to provide
consular assistance,” a reply by the Foreign Office said.
At the same time, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission to
Ukraine also said that they are “closely watching the
developments” around the arrest of the journalist.
“Our Mission’s Kiev office would be happy to meet with Mr.
Graham Phillips upon his release,” they said.
The UN mission stressed that they are ready to cooperate with RT
“in reflecting the incident in our upcoming reports as fully
as possible."
RT’s management also sent an open letter to the UK media, which
have mostly ignored the arrest of their colleague.
The letter outlined an impression that the Russian media is more
concerned about the fate of a UK citizen than the British media
or politicians are, suggesting that is a troubling sign for
journalism in the UK.
The British national’s previous record of reporting for RT has
already worked against him as two weeks ago Ukrainian radicals
put a bounty out his Phillips.
The Right Sector movement, reportedly, offered $10,000 for the
capture of Philips, whom they labeled “a Russian spy.”