Custodial term of Ukrainian citizens Panov, Zakhtiy extended in Crimea

The Russian-controlled Kyivsky District Court of Simferopol in the occupied Crimea extended custodial term of Ukrainian citizens Yevhen Panov and Andriy Zakhtiy, who were illegally detained by the Russian Federal Security Service and accused of plotting acts of sabotage in Crimea, until December 10.

This is reported by Interfax news agency, referring to a source in the law enforcement agencies.

“The Court has extended custodial term for two months,” the source said.

The judgment was delivered the other day.

Earlier, in mid-August, the same court ruled to put Panov and Zakhtiy into custody as a pre-trial restriction for two months.

As reported, August 10, the Russian Federal Security Service stated its officers had detained in Crimea a citizen of Ukraine Yevhen Panov. The Service claimed he was allegedly one of the organizers of the terrorist attacks, prepared in the occupied Crimea.

August 11, Ren-TV Russian channel released the video showing Panov supposedly bearing its testimony.

Panov’s brother, Ihor Kotelyanets, said that Yevhen Panov “planned to go to Zaporizhzhia, but he was suddenly invited to have a rest and then he went missing.” He believes that his brother was abducted on the territory of Ukraine and taken to Crimea or fraudulently lured to the occupied peninsula.

The Crimean Human Rights Group claimed that Yevhen Panov had been brutally tortured during the first three days of his arrest.

Thus, the security forces forced him to bear the testimony recorded on video and refuse the lawyer, who was hired by his family.

Crimean Human Rights Group coordinator Olha Skrypnyk stated that such methods of torture had been used against Gennady Afanasyev, Oleg Sentsov, Andriy Kolomiets, and Oleksandr Kostenko.