10/10/2018 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights has again urged Russia to release all Ukrainian citizens detained on its territory or in Crimea on “politically motivated or fabricated charges”.
In a statement approved yesterday, the committee said 70 or more such citizens were still held in Russia, expressing particular concern about Oleh Sentsov, Volodymyr Balukh and Pavlo Hyrb.
Until their release, the committee said, Russia was obliged to ensure full respect of their rights, and should allow monitoring of their health and conditions as well as visits by Ukrainian officials.
The committee welcomed the release of at least one prisoner, Oleksandr Kostenko, who was detained after the Euromaidan demonstration in Kyiv.
The statement was a follow-up to an Assembly resolution on this topic adopted in June 2018.