Moscow’s Lefortovsky District Court has declined a motion from the defense for the Ukrainian citizens detained in the Kerch Strait in late November to refer the proceedings on extending their arrest to a military court, a defense lawyer said.
“The court refused to grant our motion on referring the case to the Moscow District Military Court,” lawyer Nikolai Polozov, who is defending the commander of the sailors, Denis Hrytsenko, told Interfax.
The defense insisted that the issue of extending the sailors’ pretrial arrest is within the jurisdiction of a military court, as they are de facto prisoners of war, Polozov said.
