Rally in support of Crimean Muslims held in Kyiv

The human rights defenders and activists held a rally in support of fourteen Crimean Muslims, who are currently under investigation in the Russian-occupied Crimea and in Russia, on Independence Square in Kyiv.

As the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent reports, the rally participants congratulated Crimean Tatar human rights defender Emir-Usein Cook, who will turn 40 on June 26.

The activists and human rights activists were holding the banners reading: “Freedom to Political Prisoners of Kremlin”, “Kitchen Talks = Terrorist Attack”, “For Our and Your Freedom”, as well as Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar flags.

Russian de facto authorities in Crimea accuse Emir-Usein Kuku as one of 14 defendants in “the case of the Crimean Muslims” of plotting and taking part in the activities of the Muslim “Hizb ut-Tahrir” organization which is banned in Russia. However, the investigation has no evidence pointing to the preparation of acts of terrorism or other violent actions by the suspects in the case, the human rights activists claim.

“Article 205-5 of the Criminal Code of Russia, which they are charged under, is very manipulative. One may not commit violent acts to get under the article. We support the defendants in this case because they did not commit any violent acts,” Maria Tomak, the Euromaidan SOS human rights activist, says.

“According to Alexander Popkov, the lawyer of Emir-Usein Cook, they were detained for kitchen talks. If you look at the case files, you will see the dialogues there. They face from 15 years in prison to life imprisonment for that. If Emir Usein celebrated his birthday at home today, they could easily accuse him of the terrorist activity because of his birthday party,” she adds.

Maria Tomak is also outraged by adoption of the so-called “anti-terrorism package by MP Yarovaya” in the Russian State Duma which violates the constitutional right to privacy.

“This means we will have even more political prisoners from Crimea, who will be kidnapped and delivered to the Russian Federation, as already happened with many people, including Hennadiy Afanasyev. Ukraine needs to develop a strategy that would prevent such detentions. It is a big challenge, but we do not have a strategy yet,” the human rights activist says.

Leader of the Crimean Tatars Refat Chubarov believes that Russian de facto authorities in Crimea persecute Emir-Usein Kuku and other Crimean Tatars for their opposition to occupation of the Crimean peninsula.

“They are persecuted, because the Crimean Tatar people and all citizens, who support the integrity of Ukraine, ignored the so-called ‘referendum’ and ‘elections.’ They clearly demonstrated their political stance. The Russian Security Service has no other methods. They are trying to accuse Crimean Tatars of terrorism to justify their repressive actions. However, they do not succeed and will not succeed in doing this,” adds Eskander Bariev, the Chairman of the Board of the Crimean Tatar resource center.

The human rights activists urge to write letters to Ukrainian political prisoners in the Russian language. They recall that Ukrposhta Ukrainian postal service will not be able to send the letters of support to Crimea, but the letters can be sent to the address of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, and thus they will be resent to the required destination.