Court of Appeals affirmed the right of Crimeans to transfer property that is unauthorized by government

On December 14 Court of Appeals of Odessa in its judgment upheld the right of internally displaced persons from Crimea to transport property, that is not listed as allowed in the resolution № 1035 of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, through the checkpoint.

As reported by Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Unions, lawyers of which protected the rights of Crimeans in the court.

Lawyers hope that in the future judgment of courts will exemplary in similar cases and will help to abolish the notorious resolution of the government that violates the rights of internally displaced persons.

As noted in the UHHRU, this year an internally displaced person from Crimea, who now lives in Odessa district, could not transfer t his personal belongings in his own car from the occupied peninsula, since they were not listed as allowed in the resolution №1035 of CMU, which was adopted in the December 2015.

On September 26, lawyer Julia Lisova won the case in the court of the first instance and District Administrative Court of Odessa issued a resolution which declared the refusal of the Department of Kherson Customs of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine to be illegal. This resolution forbid for the internally displaced persons to transfer property, that is not listed as allowed in the resolution №1035 of CMU, from the territory of occupied Crimea through the checkpoint.

According to Lisova, the decision of Court of Appeals should be the future reference for courts of the first instance in such situations, because such prohibition is a violation of the Article 1 of the first protocol of European Convention on Human Rights – the right to property.

However, Lisova noted the attitude of Customs officers as a negative phenomenon, which was once again demonstrated in the courtroom. This negative phenomenon is a very formal attitude to their duties while misunderstanding the real consequences for thousands of citizens of Ukraine, which were caused by the resolution №1035. Customs officers tried to convince the court that resolution does not cause any problems at all: “Those who wanted to leave and transport everything they need, could have done this by 2016”. Customs officers indicated that personal belongings can be considered only those that are not prohibited for carriage and everything is considered to be a commodity.

According to Lisova, real victory will be pronounced only when this notorious resolution is abolished.

“The more cases the Customs will lose the more likely that resolution will be canceled”, – said lawyer.

But for now every displaced person from Crimea has to repeat a complicated sequence of actions after attempting to export personal belongings from the occupied homeland.