KYIV – An Odesa appeals court on May 31 acquitted Serhiy Sternenko and Ruslan Demchuk on charges of robbing and torturing local deputy Serhiy Shcherbych in the spring of 2015. The court, however, handed Mr. Sternenko a one-year suspended sentence for possession of an illegal weapon. It also upheld a lower court’s kidnapping verdict against Mr. Sternenko.