On November 3, the Milan Court of Appeals acquitted Markiv, and he was released from prison.
Markiv, Senior Sergeant of the National Guard of Ukraine, was serving his term in a prison near Milan after a court of first instance sentenced him to 24 years in prison last July for his alleged involvement in the deaths of Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli and his interpreter, Russian Andrei Mironov, near Sloviansk, Ukraine's Donetsk region, in 2014.
Markiv has been in custody since he was arrested in Bologna on June 30, 2017.
The session of the Milan Court of Appeals on November 3 was attended by Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova.
