Russian court extends the arrest of all captive Ukrainian sailors for three months
The Joint Group for Public Monitoring of the observance of the Constitutional freedoms of the Russian Federation reported on Twitter that the Moscow Lefortovo Court extended for three months the arrest of all 24 Ukrainian sailors captured near the Kerch Strait.
It is noted that Judge Ryabtsev left Viktor Bespalchenko, Volodymyr Varymez, Vladyslav Kostyshyn and Volodymyr Lisovy in a pre-trial detention center until April 24.
"The result. All but the wounded sailors remain in the remand prison until April 24. Oleh Melnychuk, Andriy Artemenko, Andriy Eider and Vasyl Soroka - until April 26 in the remand prison," the report said.
On Tuesday, January 15, the Russian court extended the arrest of 20 Ukrainian sailors. The meetings were held in closed session. At the same time, Ukrainians were “split-up” into groups of four, so that a different judge would make decisions in each case.
24 Ukrainian sailors were captured by Russian border guards on November 25, 2018. The court of Crimea arrested them until January 24, after which the Russian Federation transferred the Ukrainians to Moscow.