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Brussels – The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, said he felt “relieved” by the release of political prisoners thanks to an exchange between European countries with Russia and Belarus.
“The activists, human rights defenders, and journalists who have been freed were persecuted and unjustly imprisoned by the Russian and Belarusian regimes for political reasons and held in intolerable conditions,” he stated in a press release.
Similarly, Borrell called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of all political prisoners, as well as those who have been “unjustly” detained in both Russian and Belarusian prisons.
Later, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she welcomed the exchange. “The Kremlin exchanged them for convicted criminals and murderers. This is a considerable difference,” she said on the social network X.
Meanwhile, the spokeswoman for the Atlantic Alliance, Farah Dakhlalla, celebrated the prisoner exchange on the aforementioned social network, something that was made possible thanks to negotiations by several NATO allies who “worked together.”
The exchange, which was managed by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), includes 24 people from prisons in seven different countries. Among them are ‘Wall Street Journal’ journalist Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and opposition members Ilia Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza.
The exchange also included Spanish journalist Pablo González, –who was born in Moscow and holds dual nationality, Spanish and Russian– who was detained on February 28, 2022, in Poland while covering the refugee exodus at the beginning of the Ukraine war, accused of being a Russian spy by Warsaw.
González arrived yesterday at Moscow airport along with the rest of the Russian prisoners who have been freed. There he was received by Russian President Vladimir Putin, amid a committee formed by an honor guard.
Following the release, the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE) joined the statement of the Basque Association and the College of Journalists, calling the event a “magnificent news” for the organization and “for European journalism in general, which has been demanding a firm and determined attitude from governments for months to prevent an injustice, an imprisonment without evidence.”
Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) celebrated that the reporter “has finally been freed in a prisoner exchange between Russia and Poland.” “Our joy for his family. Now that he is finally free, after 28 months detained without trial, it is up to him to provide explanations about his case,” they indicated through their profile on the social network X. (August 1 and 2)