Natalia Kaplan, the sister of film director Oleh Sentsov, who was sentenced in Russia to 20 years in jail, said her brother has only a Ukrainian passport.
“It’s absolute lawlessness perpetrated by Russia. Oleh does not have any Russian citizenship. The man only has one passport, and it’s Ukrainian,” the website 15 Minutes quoted a statement by Kaplan, who lives in Kyiv, as saying on Oct. 21 in regard to the information on Russia’s refusal to extradite the film director to Ukraine.
Kaplan said her brother was put before a fact of receiving Russian citizenship and he had not given his consent to that and the Russian authorities had forged relevant documents.
“When Oleh was in the detention facility, he was put before a fact: Crimea is ours and everyone who lives on its territory are also ours… The man never gave up his Ukrainian citizenship, he never wrote any statements on his acceptance in Russian citizenship,” Kaplan said.
Sentsov was detained in Crimea in 2014. In August 2015, the Northern Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced film director Oleh Sentsov to 20 years in a high-security penal colony for the creation of a terrorist community in the territory of Crimea. Kyiv said the case was politically motivated and demanded Sentsov’s release.
It was reported on October 21 that Russia had refused to extradite Sentsov to Ukraine, saying the reason is that he has Russian citizenship.
