Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Condemns Detention of Tatar Activists in Moscow
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has lodged its protest over the detention of 45 Crimean Tatars near the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in Moscow.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine lodges a resolute protest over the unlawful detention of 45 Crimean Tatars by the Russian security forces. The Crimean Tatars gathered today near the building of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in Moscow to hold a peaceful action in support of their compatriots convicted on trumped-up charges of participating in the activities of so-called ‘terrorist organization’,” reads the Ministry’s statement.
On July 10, 2019, a number of Crimean Tatar protesters were detained on Red Square and then on July 11, 2019, 45 Crimean Tatars were detained outside the Russian Supreme Court. This is a repressive policy against both people in occupied Crimea as well as civil dissent in Russia.
“The ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation concerning the appeal against the judgment of the North-Caucasus District Military Court in the ‘Hizb ut-Tahrir case,’ which reduces the term of imprisonment of illegally detained Ukrainian citizens by several months, is a cynical mockery of Ukrainian political prisoners. It once again confirms the absence of a fair and independent legal procedure in the Russian Federation,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine states.
The Ministry called on the international community to condemn those illegal actions of the Russian Federation and to step up political, diplomatic and sanction pressure on the aggressor state to stop human rights violations and persecutions of Crimean Tatar people and to immediately release Ukrainian citizens who were illegally detained in Russia.
Source: Uatv