MOSCOW. Nov 30 (Interfax) - The arrest of Ukrainian sailors for illegally crossing the Russian border in the Kerch Strait on November 25 has been appealed to the Crimean Supreme Court.
"The lawyers who took part in hearings on the measure of restraint for the sailors have appealed their arrest. The date of the hearing has yet to be scheduled," the lawyer of one of the sailors, Nikolai Polozov, told Interfax on Friday.
According to Polozov, the defense asked the Crimean Supreme Court to repeal the arrest order and release all the sailors.
Polozov said the location of the sailors transferred from the Simferopol detention facility remains unknown. "We asked where they were but have yet to receive an anwer," he said.
The Russian border guard used weapons to detain the tug Yany Kapu and the armored gunboats Berdyansk and Nikopol on their way from Odesa in the Black Sea to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov on November 25. The vessels were escorted to Kerch.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has opened a criminal case over illegal border crossing.
Courts in Simferopol and Kerch put 24 Ukrainian citizens under arrest until January 25, 2019.