Ukraine will discuss the arrest of Kurbedinov at meetings of OSCE, United Nations and European Council

On February 2, Ukraine will raise the issue of arrest of lawyer Emil Kurbedinov, who was arrested in the annexed Crimea, at the meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

As reported by the Ukrainian News Agency, this was stated by Mariana Betsa, the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, during a press conference.

“We sent a diplomatic correspondence to the Russian side regarding the unlawful arrest of Emil Kurbedinov with demand to release him”, – she said.

“This issue will be raised this week as a part of meetings of all international organizations, the United Nations, the OSCE and the European Council. On Thursday, there will be a regular meeting of the Permanent Council of the OSCE between the 57 participating countries and this issue will definitely be featured on the agenda”, – said Betsa.

The Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed the need to establish the international monitoring mission in the Russian-occupied Crimea. The monitoring mission would monitor compliance to the human rights and could provide independent, impartial and objective information on the situation on the peninsula.

“We will continue insisting on granting access to such missions, the release of all political prisoners as well as Emil Kurbedinov and other lawyers, who are illegally detained or held, and in respect of which the searches and repressions are conducted”, – she said.

Betsa has assured that the issue of the release of illegally detained prisoners, who are detained in the occupied Crimea for political reasons, is a priority for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

As a reminder, on January 26, Emil Kurbedinov was detained by the officers of the Center E (Center for Combating Extremism) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. On the same day, according to the decision of the court he was sentenced to an administrative arrest for a term of 10 days for alleged distribution of extremist materials. Illegal searches were conducted in his house and office and files, containing advocate secrets, were seized. Human rights defenders fear that the administrative proceeding of Emil Kurbedinov could escalate into criminal proceeding and appeal to the official Ukraine and the world to respond as active as possible to the repression against one of the few independent lawyers, who are still working in the Crimea.

Among the defendants of Emil Kurbedinov – Ilmi Umerov, Mykola Semena, Emir-Useyin Kuku and other defendants in the cases of Crimean Muslims and so-called cases of saboteurs (particularly, Redvan Suleymanov).