Chairman of the State Security Committee (KGB) of Belarus Valery Vakulchik has said Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Sharoiko has been sentenced to an eight-year jail term for espionage.
“Eight years. The court handed down the sentence in February. His guilt is proven, in principle,” Vakulchik told journalists in Minsk on Wednesday. He added that Sharoiko is currently held in a KGB prison.
Asked about a possible prisoner exchange for Belarusian citizen Yuriy Politika, who is being held in Ukraine on espionage charges, Vakulchik said the cases are not related. He said the practice of prisoner swaps is used, however, mentioning the exchange of a career spy “whom we captured several years ago and who was exchanged for our citizens held by another country.”
As earlier reported, the Belarusian KGB on November 20, 2017, announced it had arrested Sharoiko for espionage, catching him “red-handed.” According to the KGB, Ihor Skvortsov, an employee of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate, who worked as an advisor at Ukraine’s embassy in Minsk coordinated Sharoiko’s work. Skvortsov was later expelled from Belarus.
Ukraine, in turn, expelled a Belarusian diplomat from Ukraine.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Belarus Ihor Kyzym has said Sharoiko was tried and convicted in court proceedings closed to the public.
