 Source: HRO.org (info) Bulgarian lawyer Yonko Grozev has submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) about the detention, torture and remand in custody of the Ukrainian film director, Oleg Sentsov, whom the FSB has accused of “preparing to commit acts of terror”. Grani.ru, citing ScreenDaily, reports that Grozev has asked the Court to take measures binding the investigators to allow access to the case of Sentsov. This, he explains, is essential since the lawyer Dmitry Dinze, who is also defending the film director Oleg Sentsov, has been obliged to give an undertaking not to publicize matters relating to the case. In the meantime, Russia has refused Sentsov any access to the Ukrainian consul, on the basis that after the annexation of Crimea, it is alleged that the director has “automatically” become a Russian citizen, since he has not formally refused Russian citizenship, the Ukrainian human rights ombudsman, Valeria Lutkovskaya, reports, citing the answer she received to her appeal from her Russian colleague, Ella Pamfilova. The press secretary of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Evgeny Perebeinis, commented on the position taken by Moscow: “No matter how much the Russian authorities play around with the idea of citizenship, Sentsov was and will remain a citizen of Ukraine.” Perebeinis added that the Ukrainian authorities have received no official statements from the Russian side to the effect that the political prisoner has been given Russian citizenship. ‘Moreover,’ he added, ‘over the course of two months we have not received any answer to over 25 diplomatic notes and requests that we have sent.” The Ukrainian film director himself, Oleg Sentsov, appearing in court on Monday regarding his detention, confirmed that he remains a citizen of Ukraine. Sentsov said, “I do not recognise the annexation of Crimea or the military seizure of Crimea by the Russian Federation and I consider any treaties that are now made by the illegitimate government of Crimea with the Russian Federation to be invalid. I am not a serf to be transferred from one landowner to another along with the land.” Translated by Frances Robson |
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