“The real terrorists are those who burst into the homes of people peacefully sleeping, who intimidate people who tell the truth; those who have turned a resort peninsula into a military base, bringing in thousands of items of military technology; and those who persecute and imprison people for their political and religious views.” – Vadim Siruk

Three days after a Russian court passed unprecedentedly long sentences against Crimean Tatar human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku and five other Ukrainian political prisoners, the same Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has begun a new ‘trial’ of eight Crimean Tatars

Six Ukrainian political prisoners from occupied Crimea, including human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku, have been sentenced to unprecedently long terms of imprisonment on ‘terrorism’ charges without any crime

So what do you tell a Russian court whose judges know perfectly well that all six Ukrainian defendants are innocent but are still likely to pass guilty verdicts and long sentences, because that’s what is demanded of them?

A Russian prosecutor has demanded a record 20.5 year sentence against 55-year-old Crimean Tatar Inver Bekirov because the latter discussed religious issues with friends at the school where he worked as a guard.

Server Mustafayev, human rights activist and one of the coordinators of the Crimean Solidarity initiative, has been imprisoned since May 2018, with the last month and a half or more in conditions that amount to torture

Arsen Dzhepparov was probably arrested in April 2016 and is now facing a huge sentence because he refused to act as an FSB informer, providing false testimony aimed at imprisoning fellow Crimean Tatars

A ‘pre-investigation check’ has been ordered in Russian-occupied Crimea after a ‘prosecution witness’ in the trial of Crimean Tatar political prisoner Enver Seytosmanov stated in court that FSB officers had used physical and psychological pressure to force him into giving false testimony

These are the highest sentences demanded so far in Russia’s persecution of Ukrainian Muslims on deeply flawed charges which are increasingly used as a weapon against Crimean Tatar civic activists and journalists

The case of Ruslan Zeytullaev, one of the ‘oldest’ of Russia’s Ukrainian political prisoners, stands out for the relentless cynicism with which the Russian FSB obtained the huge sentence they needed for their records and, probably, bonuses or promotion

58-year-old Dzhemil Gafarov suffers from chronic kidney disease and is in a critical condition in Russian detention, yet his wife and lawyer have to fight for the recognized political prisoner’s right to receive any medical treatment or medication

As if the use of ‘secret witnesses’ giving unverifiable testimony were not enough, Russia’s FSB is using them to triumphantly ‘identify’ arrested Crimean Tatar activists from an identity parade (or police line-up) where the other men look quite different

If the new sentences are upheld at appeal level, this will mark a worrying new escalation in religious persecution, with more imprisonments likely, both in Russia and in occupied Crimea

With Russia on the verge of destroying virtually the last remaining Ukrainian Orthodox Church place of worship in occupied Crimea, the UN Human Rights Committee has stepped in.  The Committee has applied its Rule 94 as an interim measures, and thus halted the eviction of the congregation from the Cathedral of Vladimir and Olga in the centre of Simferopol.

Computer ‘evidence’ presented by Russia’s FSB to back deeply flawed charges against Ukrainian human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku was created after Kuku was arrested on 11 February 2016

Bilyal Adilov is regaining strength after refusing all food and drink for several days in protest at the intolerable conditions in the Rostov SIZO [remand prison] where he and 23 other Crimean Tatar activists are illegally imprisoned

Ukraine’s collaboration with the Kyrgyzstan authorities over Makhmudzhon Kholdarov would be especially incomprehensible as he is facing persecution on the same grounds as around 55 Ukrainian political prisoners arrested by the FSB in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Both the Memorial Human Rights Centre and Human Rights Watch point to Russia’s use of ‘terrorism’ charges without any terrorism as a weapon against Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea

A Russian court on 29 July imposed fines on the first 18 of 46 Crimean Tatar activists detained in Moscow while standing outside the Supreme Court in solidarity with four Crimean Tatar political prisoners given huge sentences for no crime at all

Less than a month after the Russian occupation regime seized the main premises of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Crimea, the inside of the building has been devastated and all Church items simply stolen