“What is said on the record is not to be believed!” – Lawyers began to “excuse” those who surrendered to the Naval Forces of Ukraine
Videotaped confessions of violating the Russian border surrendered crews of Ukrainian Navy boats are not evidence of the guilt of Ukrainian sailors.
Nikolai Polozov, the head of the group of lawyers of the Military Military School of Ukraine, who previously defended members of the Mejlis in Crimea, stated this during a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Probably, many saw that after the capture of Ukrainian sailors, FSB officers shot a video in relation to some of them, where it is quite obvious that the sailors are reading the text that is offered to them. At that time, they did not have legal assistance, and everything that was said by them at that moment should not be accepted as evidence in court if the trial takes place.
Our position is that we know that they were tried to be misinformed after they were captured. Various people came to them - in uniform, without it, they gave them some papers to sign, they wrote down appeals from them, and so on. All this has no legal force.
When a lawyer from our team comes to see a prisoner of war sailor, from that moment his testimony and statements are valid and will be assessed not only by the Russian investigation, but also by Ukraine and the international community.
They could say anything. In some armies of the world, there is even such a technique when a person is captured, and he is told in advance: “Say whatever you want, as long as they don’t mock you.” Therefore, everything that they said before our lawyer came to them and started working makes no sense,” Polozov said.
According to him, Kyiv will insist that the crews of Ukrainian Navy boats are not border violators, but “prisoners of war.”
“It is quite obvious that the Russian authorities will make every effort to convince the West that these are not prisoners of war, but ordinary criminals who need to be punished,” Polozov said.
As of today, all sailors have been visited by Ukrainian consuls.
“The consuls, in accordance with their position, transferred to the account of each sailor an amount in rubles equivalent to approximately 70 dollars. This should be enough for them at first. Why were the consuls able to see the sailors before the lawyers? Because they enter in a different order. This procedure is agreed upon by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has nothing in common with the procedure for the entry of lawyers. With one difference, communication with consuls is not confidential, so they could not convey any information that was “not for the ears of the FSB,” Polozov said.
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