The Memorial has recognized Oleh Sentsov as a political prisoner

The human rights organization Memorial has recognized Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov and activist Oleksandr Kolchenko as political prisoners. The statement posted on the Memorial’s website reads: “A number of factors have made it clear that [Sentsov’s. – Author] case has obvious political undertones. One of them is constant inappropriate references to the Right Sector. The investigation has uncovered no real evidence of Sentsov or Kolchenko having anything to do with this organization which is banned in Russia.” “Also without precedent is the fact that authorities are forcing the accused to change their nationality from Ukrainian to Russian, despite the fact that they consider themselves citizens of Ukraine, and their only ID papers are Ukrainian passports. This causes violations of their rights, as the accused have no access to a Ukrainian consul, and are not allowed to retain a Ukrainian lawyer,” the human rights activists noted. Let us recall that Ukrainian film director Sentsov and another Ukrainian activist Kolchenko, having been accused of planning terrorist attacks in Crimea, pleaded not guilty at a hearing held by the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don on July 21.