EU again calls on Russia to free Sentsov, other political prisoners

16.05.2019 18:30

Ukrinform

The European Union has once again called on Russia to immediately release filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and all other Ukrainian political prisoners, according to a statement released by the EU Delegation to the UN Organizations in Vienna.

The statement was read out at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The statement once again urges Russia to release Oleg Sentsov and, before the release of Sentsov and other political prisoners, expects Russia to grant access to them for representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, including the Ukrainian ombudsman.

The EU recalled that May 10 marked the fifth anniversary of the arrest of Oleg Sentsov, who is serving a 20-year prison term in Russia on charges of terrorism after expressing a peaceful protest against the illegal annexation of Crimea.

In addition, the European Union expressed serious concern about the human rights situation in the Crimean peninsula occupied by Russia.

More than 70 other Ukrainian citizens are illegally detained in Crimea and in the Russian Federation, the statement said. The EU expects international human rights standards to be observed in the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula and all illegally detained citizens of Ukraine to be released, including Volodymyr Balukh, Emir-Usein Kuku, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Pavlo Hryb, Edem Bekirov, Crimean Tatars detained in March and many others, the statement said.