The defense team informed that the first hearing in the trial of Ukrainian nonviolent pacifist Yurii Sheliazhenko that was to take place yesterday, 20 September, has been postponed to 3 October. The Public Prosecutor did not appear at the hearing, forcing the judge to postpone it.

Yurii Sheliazhenko, conscientious objector, pacifist, human rights defender and executive secretary of the Ukrainian peace movement was placed under partial house arrest in Kiev on 15 August, accused of ‘justifying Russian aggression’.

The only ‘proof’ of this accusation was presented as the declaration of the Ukrainian peace movement, adopted at the International Day of Peace meeting on 21 September 2022, entitled ‘Peace Agenda for Ukraine and the World’. In addition, the statement explicitly condemns Russian aggression.

The solidarity campaign set in motion by numerous European and international pacifist organisations continues.

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