Spanish police have arrested a Ukrainian blogger accused of high treason

by

Spanish authorities have arrested a pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger and an aspiring politician based on an international arrest warrant issued against him at the request of Kiev, as he is suspected of high treason, Spanish police sources said.

O East Saria fanatical critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his pro-Western government, was arrested in the Catalan coastal city of Tarragona.

Earlier, Ukraine’s national security service, the SBU, said in a statement that Sari had been arrested on Wednesday in a coordinated operation by Ukrainian authorities and Spanish police on suspicion of high treason and “violation of equal rights”. », On the basis of racial, ethnic and other characteristics.

“SBU investigators believe that Sari was engaged in illegal activities in the field of information detrimental to the national security of Ukraine. “There are reasons to believe that Anatoly Sari was acting on orders from foreign services,” the statement said.

Sarii was temporarily released, but with judicial supervision: he is not allowed to leave Spanish territory, his passport has been confiscated and he will have to appear in court twice a month.

Ukraine had declared Sari a suspect before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

When his investigative reporting, which was often criticized by Ukrainian authorities, created problems with the law and, following an assassination attempt, Sarii was exiled to the European Union in 2012, first to Lithuania, then to the Netherlands, and to Catalonia. in Spain.

The 43-year-old Sari specifically took a pro-Russian stance after the Maidan events in Ukraine in 2014 and the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

Frequently invited to Russian television channels, he claimed in videos posted by the Kremlin that Ukraine wanted a Western-dominated “colony” of haters who hate Russia, justifying the invasion and accusing Ukrainian media and Zelensky of public opinion in the West.

In 2019, he secured the title of a political party in Ukraine, called the Sari Party, which secured seats in several regional councils in 2020.

The National Security Council of Ukraine banned the party in March, as well as some other parties with ties to Russia, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news

You May Also Like

Recommended for you