SIMFEROPOL. Dec 17 (Interfax) - A hearing by the Crimean Supreme Court of the first five appeals against the detention of the sailors from the Ukrainian Navy ships, who were arrested for illegal crossing of the Russian Border in the Black Sea on November 25, is scheduled for December 19.
"The hearing is due on December 19," a court spokesperson told reporters. The defense team asked the court to overturn the detention ruling and release all 24 sailors.
Their lawyers, who were present at the bail hearings on November 27 and 28, had appealed against their detention until January 25, 2019, one of the lawyers, Nikolai Polozov, told Interfax earlier.
The Russian border guard used weapons to stop three Ukrainian naval vessels, the Yany Kapu tug and the Berdyansk and the Nikopol armored gunboats, on their way from Odesa to Mariupol near the Kerch Strait on November 25. The ships were convoyed to Kerch.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal investigation and charged the 24 Ukrainian sailors with "conspiracy by a group of persons or an organized group to illegally cross the border in a violent way or with the threat to use violence" (Part 3 of Article 322 of the Russian Penal Code).
Courts in Simferopol and Kerch remanded the sailors in custody until January 25, 2019. Early on November 30, 21 of them were transported from Crimea to the Lefortovo facility in Moscow, and the remaining three, who were wounded, were admitted to the infirmary of the Matrosskaya Tishina detention facility.
Kyiv calls the detained sailors prisoners of war. The FSB says they cannot be regarded as POWs, as they are charged with a crime and Russia and Ukraine are not in a state of war or military conflict.