Crewmembers of Ukrainian ships detained in Kerch Strait being transferred to detention facility in Moscow - Russian human rights commissioner
MOSCOW. Nov 30 (Interfax) - Crewmembers of the Ukrainian Navy's ships detained in the Kerch Strait are being transferred to a detention facility in Moscow, the press service of Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova told Interfax.
The press service did not say how many sailors would be transferred to Moscow.
"Crimean commissioner Lyudmila Lubina said that the commanders would be moved from Simferopol to Moscow," the press service said.
The lawyer of an arrested Ukrainian, Dzhemal Temishev, said on Thursday that the sailors, who were taken into custody on November 26 and 27, were about to be transferred from Crimea to the Lefortovo detention facility in Moscow.
Russian border guards had to open fire on November 25 to detain the Yany Kapu tugboat and the Berdyansk and Nikopol armored gunboats en route from Odesa to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov. The ships were escorted to Kerch.
The Federal Security Service opened a criminal case on counts of "conspiring to illegally cross the border as a group, by using force, or by threatening to use force."
Courts in Simferopol and Kerch put 24 Ukrainian citizens under arrest until January 25, 2019.