Court in Crimea refuses to release 20 out of 24 Ukrainian seamen captured near Kerch Strait

16:37, 26.12.2018 1 min read

 The Supreme Court of Crimea on December 26 refused to release the last five naval seamen out of the crews of three Ukrainian naval vessels captured in the Black Sea on November 25 after considering complaints against their arrest, an Interfax correspondent has reported.

The court of appeals has upheld the ruling of the Kyivsky District Court in Simferopol, specifying that the term of arrest will come to an end on January 24, 2019 instead of January 25, 2019 as had been declared by the court of the first instance that merely made a technical mistake.

The defense will appeal the arrest of the remaining four Ukrainians in the court of appeals.

Thus, the court of appeals has heard appeals against the arrest of 20 out of the 24 Ukrainians.

As was earlier reported, on November 25, the Russian border guards attacked and captured three Ukrainian naval vessels en route from Odesa to Mariupol near the Kerch Strait. The crews were then arrested and transported to Moscow. They are charged with illegal border crossing.