Over two hundred women sentenced in Crimea after occupation

240 women have been sentenced to imprisonment in Crimea since the occupation of the peninsula by the Russian Federation.

This is stated in the letter of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in response to the inquiry of the Moscow Helsinki Group, the text of which is available to the Human Rights Information Centre.

According to the Russian Penitentiary Service, 240 women, convicted in the territory of Crimea, were sent from the Simferopol remand prison to the correctional facilities for serving their sentences within the period from March 18, 2014 to June 15, 2016.

“All these women from Crimea have been sent to serve the sentence in the territory of the Russian Federation, which is a gross violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits the occupying state from displacing the civilian population from or to the occupied territories. For example, according to the Rome Statute, the forced transfer of population is one of the elements of a war crime,” commented the Chairwoman of the Human Rights Information Centre Tetiana Pechonchyk.

She also added that the peculiarity of Crimea was that there had been no female correctional institutions before the peninsula was occupied: the women were sent to serve their sentences to other regions of Ukraine.

“Now, the women are sent to the correctional facility No. 3 in the village of Dvubratsky in Krasnodar Krai, the correctional facility No. 18 in the town of Azov, Rostov region, the correctional facility No. 7 in the town of Zelenokumsk in Stavropol Territory; the correctional facility No. 28 in the town of Leninsk in Volgograd region; the correctional facility No. 6 in the Republic of Adygea,” lawyer Roman Martynovsky, the expert of the Regional Human Rights Center, reported.

The minors are in the same situation as women, as there are no special correctional facilities for minors in Crimea. According to Martynovsky, they are sent to colonies in the town of Kamyshyn in Volgograd region and the town of Belorechensk of Krasnodar Krai.

Photo credit: Procherk.info