OSCE’s Desir hopes court hearing in Kiev this week ‘will lead to release’ of journalist Vyshinsky

The OSCE's Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Desir, tweeted on Monday that he hopes the upcoming court hearing in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on July 19 “will lead to the release of journalist Kirill Vyshinsky in Ukraine.”

The head of RIA Novosti's Ukraine portal's “lasting pre-trial detention is of serious concern,” Desir wrote. “I reiterate my call for his release in this decisive time.”

Vyshinsky was detained in Kiev on May 15, 2018, on suspicion of supporting the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in the east of Ukraine, and of committing high treason. He has been held in custody since.

The Kremlin hopes Vyshinsky “will be ultimately released,” TASS quoted its press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, as saying on Monday.