The High Council of Justice expresses its gratitude to all the bodies and structures that contributed to the release from captivity of Yuliia Matvieieva, the judge of Illichivskyi district court of the city of Mariupol, Donetsk Region.
As it was reported, the judge Yuliia Matvieieva was released from captivity on October 17, 2022 as part of a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and the aggressor country. In total, 108 Ukrainian women were released from captivity during this exchange.
After the Supreme Court changed the jurisdiction of court cases pending in Illichivskyi district court of the city of Mariupol, judges of this court and their families were forced to evacuate the city to the territories that controlled by Ukraine. When the judge and her family tried to leave Mariupol in March, she and her husband were detained by representatives of the so-called “DNR”
The judicial community rooted for the fate of the prisoners and strove for their release. The High Council of Justice also did not stand aside.
Back in April, the HCJ appealed to Iryna Vereshchuk, the Vice Prime Minister – the Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, the National Information Bureau and asked to take measures to protect and ensure the rights and interests of citizens of Ukraine, namely: to establish location and facilitate the release of the judge of Illichivskyi district court of the city of Mariupol, Donetsk region, Yuliia Matvieieva and her husband that were deprived of their personal freedom as a result of the actions of illegal armed groups and military personnel of the aggressor country in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.
In addition, the President of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Kniaziev, the Acting Chairman of the High Council of Justice Vitalii Salikhov and the Chairman of the Council of Judges of Ukraine Bohdan Monich addressed joint letter to the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Joint Center for Search and Release of Prisoners under the Security Service of Ukraine and the State enterprise “Ukrainian National Center for Peacebuilding” with a request to urgently take all possible measures for the speedy release from captivity of the judge of Illichivskyi district court of the city of Mariupol, Donetsk region Yu.O. Matvieieva and her husband A.V. Matvieiev.
Thanks to everyone who made efforts to free Yuliia Matvieieva, as well as other Ukrainians enslaved by the occupiers.