In July-August, the authorities of occupied Crimea imprisoned 9 Ukrainians for political reasons

For a little over a month, in July and August, 5 politically motivated verdicts involving imprisonment were delivered and 6 administrative fines for political reasons were awarded in Crimea.

As reported in the statement of the public organization Crimea-SOS on the worsening of the human rights situation in Crimea in July-August, the text of which was passed to the Human Rights Information Centre.

“Violations of human rights by the occupation authorities are demonstrational and are carried out as a part of the systematic policy regarding civilian population”, – said in the statement.

Authors of the statement remind that on August 8, 2017, 76-year old veteran of the Crimean Tatar movement Server Karametov was detained and sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest in Simferopol. He came with a single-person protest to the building of the Supreme Court in support of Akhtem Chiygoz, Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.

The public organization notes that the detention took place with a disproportionate use of force: Karametov was held in a police car from 11 a.m. till 4 p.m., he was not allowed to the toilet, not allowed to eat and to take medicines.

In addition, a number of procedural safeguards, including access of defense counsel, a translator, as well as independent examination of evidence, were violated during the trial. As a result of the appeal, the verdict was upheld, despite the clearly disproportionate nature of the punishment. Today, Server Karametov is in the Simferopo SIZO (pre-trial detention centre) for already 6 days and the state of his health causes serious concern.

The Crimea-SOS also reported that on August 14, in support of Server Karametov 4 elderly men came out in four different parts of Simferopol with single-person protests. All of them were detained together with other activists and human rights defenders, nine people were detained overall. An administrative protocol was drawn up against one of the participants of the protest, a court hearing is expected.

Crimea-SOS notes that five politically motivated sentences related to deprivation of liberty were deliver in just over a month. Among the sentenced are Emil Minasov, who was sentenced to 1 year and 3 months of imprisonment for making a publication in social networks. Oleksiy Stogniy was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months of imprisonment in the so called “case of saboteurs”, Ruslan Zeytullayev sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment, Volodymyr Balukh – to 3 years and 7 months of imprisonment and fined for 10 thousand rubles (about 170 dollars). Redvan Suleymanov was sentenced to 1 year and 8 months of imprisonment in the “case of saboteurs” and fined for 3.5 million rubles (about 58 thousand dollars). During the delivery of verdict on the case of Redvan Suleymanov, for the first time in Russian practice the court recognized missed profit as a loss, which was calculated non-transparently.

Administrative fines for manifestation of solidarity are becoming more frequent. In July, Rustem Mennanov, Bilyal Adilov and Nariman Memedinov received administrative fines in the amount from 2 to 10 thousand rubles. Rustem Mennanov was fined for mentioning Mejlis in the social network, Bilyal Adilov for allegedly threatening police officer and Nariman Mennanov for being present during the search of Seydamet Mustafayev’s house. Moreover, three activists were sentenced to large fines (150-300 thousand rubles) for participating in spontaneous assemblies near Crimean Tatars’ homes, where searches and detentions were conducted. Osman Belyalov and Emil Bilyalov (fined for repeated participation in spontaneous assemblies during searches in the houses of neigbors), Zarema, resident of Bakhchysarai district (for pro-Ukrainian publications in the Internet) were fined. Activists are not able to pay these fines by their own means and as a result they face confiscation of property and imprisonment.

Three searches took place in different regions of Crimea over just a single week in August: on August 2, in the house of Mamet Kurkchi was searched in Sovietskyi district; on August 9, in the house of local religious figure Umer Emiramzayev in Kirovske village; on August 10, in the house of Ibrahim Mirpochayev in Novoklenove village of the Bilohirsk district. The searches were conducted in the format of a special operation: law enforcers blocked the roads, warned the assembled local residents of responsibility for the “unauthorized mass meeting”, a large number of special equipment and armed officers of the security forces were present. Umer Emiramzayev was in need of the “first aid” services after the search in Kirovske viilage.

“We regard the recent events as another manifestation of Russia’s repressive policy towards the civilian population, and violation of the fundamental norms of international law on human rights and humanitarian law”, – said in the statement.