COPENHAGEN—The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Representative on Political Prisoners, Congressman Steve Cohen, and the Parliamentary Assembly Support Team for Ukraine Special Rapporteur, Senator Boris Dittrich, have expressed deep concern that the three OSCE officials, Dmytro Shabanov, Vadym Golda, and Maksym Petrov, have been illegally detained for more than four years.
They noted that this marks more than four years of unjust deprivation of liberty, at a time when Russia’s full scale invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine continues to have severe impacts on the civilian population and cause widespread human suffering.
Cohen and Dittrich stressed that the continued detention of the three officials, who were carrying out their official duties under the OSCE mandate as part of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, constitutes a clear violation of their mandate. They reiterated that the officials must be released immediately and unconditionally.
Special Representative Cohen and Special Rapporteur Dittrich called on OSCE participating States to do their utmost to support the efforts of OSCE Secretary General Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu and all relevant diplomatic initiatives aimed at securing the immediate and unconditional release of Dmytro Shabanov, Vadym Golda, and Maksym Petrov.
They further noted that, through a joint statement, a growing number of members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly are calling for greater action to secure their release. Cohen and Dittrich encouraged participating States to continue raising the case of the three detained officials in their contacts with the relevant authorities and to actively support all diplomatic efforts aimed at securing their release.
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