The investigation department of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on Thursday, March 7, handed out orders on scheduling an expert psychiatric examination (a kind of forensic test) to two more captive Ukrainian sailors Vasyl Soroka and Viktor Bespalchenko, defending lawyer Nikolai Polozov has reported.
“Thus, in the current week, an outpatient expert psychiatric examination was scheduled for eight captive sailors. Next investigative actions are planned for another 12 prisoners of war next week,” Polozov wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, the lawyers made statements about the inadmissibility of such an examination of the captive prisoners, as being unforeseen by the Third Geneva Convention. It was also noted that the investigators had not provided information on sending a relevant request for obtaining information on the mental health status of the captive sailors to the competent authorities of Ukraine.
Due to the fact that the investigators have the intention to conduct an examination regardless of the position of the defense, lawyers, as before, filed petitions seeking for their presence during the examination in connection with the need to provide legal assistance to the prisoners of war (POW).
Earlier POW sailors Serhiy Tsybyzov, Roman Mokriak, Yuriy Bezyazychny, Vladyslav Kostyshyn, Volodymyr Varimez and Serhiy Chuliba received orders on scheduling an expert psychiatric examination.
As earlier reported, on November 25, 2018, Russian border guards used weapons to stop three Ukrainian naval vessels, the Yany Kapu tug and the Berdiansk and the Nikopol armored gunboats, which were traveling from Odesa to Mariupol in the Kerch Strait.
The vessels were convoyed to Kerch, and 24 Ukrainians who were on them were arrested and charged with “illegally crossing the border” and “conspiracy by a group of persons or an organized group to illegally cross the border using violence or the threat to use violence.”
Late November 2018, the Ukrainians were transferred to Moscow. The court extended all the Ukrainians’ arrests until April 24.
