A court in Russian-occupied Crimea has sentenced Emil Minasov to one year and three months’ imprisonment for supposed ‘incitement to enmity’ on Facebook. This appears to be how the FSB – and judge Anna Klimova – chose to view posts or reposts critical of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Days after the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [DPR] declared journalist Stanyslav Aseyev ‘missing’, and six weeks after he disappeared, the militants have admitted to holding him prisoner and claim to suspect him of ‘spying’..

Media and human rights groups have reacted with alarm to two draft bills which, in the name of protecting national security, propose some seriously disturbing restrictions which are reminiscent of those applied in Russia. They have called on the authors of the two bills to withdraw them, and point out that democracy is impossible in any countries whose authorities arbitrarily restrict freedom of expression

At least one of the mistakes in the faulty translation of Ilmi Umerov’s interview in Crimean Tatar was almost certainly a deliberate distortion to enable charges under Article 280.1, the 2014 addition to the criminal code increasingly used against critics of Russia’s occupation of Crimea

The Committee to Protect Journalists has published a report which is highly critical of Ukraine’s investigation into the killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet

A Simferopol court under Russian occupation has fined Bilyal Adilov 10 thousand roubles in the latest move against civic activists coming out in peaceful solidarity with neighbours or other Crimean Tatars facing armed searches and arrest

Russia’s security service [FSB] has clearly become accustomed to using a combination of puppet ‘lawyers’ and torture to obtain ‘confessions’ before most of its extremism cases hit the court. This is not working in Crimea under Russian occupation, with defendants like journalist Mykola Semena, Crimean Tatar leaders Ilmi Umerov, Akhtem Chiygoz and their defence lawyers pointing to staggering depths of shoddy incompetence.

With Russia having first invaded Crimea, then set to putting those who object on trial for ‘separatism’, the ‘acquittal’ of Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Ilmi Umerov seems most improbable. Moscow will surely find ‘judges’ ready to provide the required sentence. What it cannot achieve is any passable imitation of a trial, with this becoming clearer with every court hearing.

Paul Moreira, the author of a French film that falsely calls a tragic fire in Odesa a ‘massacre’ and presents an equally distorted picture of Euromaidan and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, has won a defamation suit against freelance Ukrainian journalist, Anna Chesanovska-Jaillard

Natalya Kharchenko, a blogger and the mother of two small children has been forced to leave her home in Crimea under Russian occupation or become the latest Ukrainian to be charged with ‘separatism’ for her pro-Ukrainian position

Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU] has set up a special page on Facebook where citizens can effectively denounce their fellow Ukrainians for lack of patriotism. This is all supposed to be part of civic involvement in drawing up amendments to legislation to ensure liability for those involvement in “hybrid warfare serving the Russian aggressor

The trial of Ilmi Umerov for saying only what the UN and international community says about Russia’s occupation of Crimea was always going to seem grotesquely Kafkaesque. It has now transpired that Russia did not even (or could not) find an ‘expert’ willing to give testimony against the Crimean Tatar leader who actually knew Crimean Tatar.

The Kremlin-backed militants who have seized Stanyslav Aseyev (Vasin) are believed to be using torture to extract a ‘confession’ from the 27-year-old freelance journalist, and to be putting severe pressure on his mother.

By staging show trials aimed at silencing opposition to annexation, Russia has drawn attention to the fact that its own legislation indicts Russian President Vladimir Putin and all those who helped him invade another country’s territory.

Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 has not just led to grave human rights abuses on the occupied peninsula. One of the victims of Moscow’s invasion and ongoing aggression against Ukraine, a new study points out, has been freedom of speech in Russia itself

The first hearing on ‘the merits’ of the case against Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Ilmi Umerov has ended without any trace of merits visible. It was clear that the prosecution had amassed a vast amount of irrelevant documents and witness testimony so as to conceal the lack of any evidence, while attempting to present the semblance of a trial.

The Crimean Ukrainians imprisoned in occupied Crimea or Russia on fabricated ‘terrorist’ charges are increasingly used as part of Russia’s propaganda war against Ukraine. The latest, from REN-TV, has come up with scurrilous lies about recognized political prisoner Nuri Primov and a visit from the Ukrainian consul.

Rustem Mennanov has become the latest Crimean Tatar to be fined or jailed for innocuous social network posts. Such prosecutions are often pretexts for persecution, but also a form of intimidation and warning that even posts from years before Russia’s invasion of Crimea will be used for repressive purposes.

The acquittal in July 2016 of Ukrainian blogger and journalist Ruslan Kotsaba on charges of obstructing Ukraine’s Armed Services has been revoked and the case sent back for a new court hearing

The Kremlin’s record of questions put to the Presidents of France and Russia at their joint May 30 press conference omits any message of imprisoned Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko. Human rights are also given a wide berth although they were also certainly raised at question-time.