Crimean Prosecutor protests against the actions of the Simferopol City Council.

The Prosecutor has issued a protest over the decision taken by the Simferopol City Council when agreeing allocation of land for the Spiritual Directorate of the Muslims of the Crimea. In allocating land on Luhova St, the Council infringed established procedure for assigning land.  “The procedure envisages taking a decision to allocate the land site or turn the application down. … Instead of reviewing the building plan, the deputies unwarrantedly changed the location of the Mosque, this being in violation of the law and exceeded their authority.  Such a decision must be preceded by an application from members of the public, and the formalization of preliminary agreements. In the given instance, the Spiritual Directorate did not apply for the land site on Luhova St and clearly did not submit the building documentation.”

“This case prompts the Prosecutor to once again draw the attention of the authorities to sources of escalating tension in inter-religious relations.  The issue of allocation of land for places of worship for the Roman Catholic Church in Simferopol  and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Yalta have for a considerable period of time not been considered. No measures are being taken to resolve the conflict over the Svyato-Uspensky monastery (Bakhchysarai) and the Matrosky Sad (Feodosia).

The Crimean Prosecutor has sent a letter to the Crimean Parliament and Council of Ministers, the representative office of the President in the Crimea proposing that an action plan be drawn up aimed at averting an escalation in inter-religious relations.