“No war, no prisoners of war”: The court in Moscow rejected the arguments of the defense of the Navy personnel
The Lefortovo District Court of Moscow extended the detention of Ukrainian sailors who surrendered after attempting to break through the Russian border near the Kerch Strait at the end of 2018.
One of the lawyers, Nikolai Polozov, said that the crews of the boats and tugboat of the Ukrainian Navy were detained until April 24 and 26 of this year.
Another lawyer, Ilya Novikov, added that representatives of European embassies were present at the meeting on the case of the Ukrainian military.
“Today’s meeting was the first public appearance of Ukrainian sailors in public since the day of their arrest, and it was known in advance that the main part of it would be held behind closed doors, so we had to keep up. Among the audience were diplomats from European embassies; they only managed to hear two things: that the sailors were demanding to be recognized as prisoners of war, not criminals, and that the investigation was asking the court to hear the case without the public, although there were no secret documents in the materials. Immediately after this statement, the request was respected, and the public was told to leave,” Novikov said.
Lawyers tried to get the court to recognize the detained Ukrainian sailors as prisoners of war, but the court rejected their arguments.
“The main position of the Russian side is that the investigations with the prosecutor’s office, that the judges – “since there is no war, then there are no prisoners of war, this is an ordinary criminal case,” Novikov complains.
Single picket of a Russian liberal in defense of the Military Forces of Ukraine
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