Crimean Court Again Postpones Verdict On Crimean Tatars Charged For Protest
By the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
A court in the Russia-annexed peninsula of Crimea has for the third time postponed a ruling on five Crimean Tatars charged with organizing an illegal demonstration four years ago.
The Central District Court in Simferopol gave no explanation on June 18 for putting off the hearing until the following day.
The five men -- Ali Asanov, Mustafa Degermendzhy, Eskendir Kantemirov, Eskendir Emirvaliev, and Arsen Yunusov -- were among a group who staged a protest outside the regional legislature in February 2014.
The demonstration occurred as Russia moved to seize control of the Black Sea region following street protests in the Ukrainian capital that forced the country’s pro-Russian president to flee.
The five were arrested and charged in late 2015.
Akhtem Chiygoz, the well-known leader in the Crimean Tatars’ local assembly, was also charged for his participation in the protest.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison in September 2017, but weeks later he was taken to Turkey and freed. He later moved to Kyiv.
Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 was vocally opposed by the Crimea Tatar population, who make up a sizable minority of the peninsula.
U.S. Calls On Russia To Release Dozens Of Political Prisoners
By RFE/RL
WASHINGTON – The United States has called on Russia to release dozens of people it says have been identified by rights groups as political prisoners.
The June 18 statement by the State Department said more than 150 people were being held in all, including Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and human rights activist Oyub Titiyev.
Sentsov was arrested in Crimea in 2014, after Russia seized the Ukrainian region. A Russian court in 2015 convicted him of planning to commit terrorist acts and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. He has been on hunger strike since May 14.
Titiyev, who heads the Chechen office of the rights group Memorial, has been pretrial detention in Chechnya since his January arrest on drug charges that he and his associates say are fabricated.
“We call on Russia to release all those identified as political or religious prisoners immediately and cease its use of the legal system to suppress dissent and peaceful religious practice,” the statement said.
There was no immediate reaction to the statement by Moscow. In the past, the Foreign Ministry has responded with angry denunciations, accusing Washington of meddling in its internal affairs.
The State Department also mentioned the case of a Jehovah’s Witness who it said had been in pretrial detention for more than a year now. Other religious followers facing pressure include Church of Scientology followers and those of a Muslim Turkish theologian, the department said.
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
