The de facto prosecutor in Russian-occupied Crimea has demanded an 8-year sentence for Crimean Tatar leader Akhtem Chiygoz in a ‘trial’ that breaches even Russian law and which has openly targeted only Crimean Tatars.  This has been recognized as a political trial from the outset, and Russia is clearly hoping to get Chiygoz convicted during August when many people are on holiday in the hope of attracting less publicity.

Two members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot are facing administrative prosecution for a totally peaceful protest calling for the release of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov whom Russia arrested shortly after its invasion and annexation of Crimea.

Ruslan Zeytullaev is continuing the hunger strike he declared on July 27, the day that Russia’s Supreme Court increased his manifestly unjust sentence to 15 years. Zeytullaev’s moving words to the court made it clear that his action was not only in protest at the sentence, but in defence of his people, facing persecution

Ukrainian truck driver Volodymyr Prysich had the misfortune to be delivering furniture to Russian-occupied Crimea on August 13, 2016, when Russia’s FSB was on the lookout for other Ukrainians to accuse of involvement in a supposed ‘Ukrainian sabotage plot’. The last to be arrested, he was the first to be convicted of something entirely different from what he ‘confessed’ to

Ukrainian farmer, activist and recognized political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh has been sentenced to 3 years, 7 months in what human rights groups have condemned as reprisals for his open opposition to Russia’s occupation of his native Crimea - and, effectively, for a Ukrainian flag

46-year-old Volodymyr Balukh is suffering from heart problems and high blood pressure after 6 months in a filthy and overcrowded Crimean SIZO [remand unit]. The recognized political prisoner’s very life could be in danger, and he is just one of at least 28 men held on fabricated charges in appalling conditions

It may be simply that ‘judge’ Maria Bedritskaya wants to go on holiday, and can’t go until she ‘convicts’ Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Balukh. It is possible, however, that the flagrant irregularities are also intended as a warning to all Ukrainians of what they can expect for a Ukrainian flag, for honouring the slain victims of Maidan or other demonstrations of ‘dissident thinking’. .

After three attempts. Russia’s FSB has obtained almost the 17-year sentence it demanded against Ruslan Zeytullaev, a 32-year-old father of three and recognized political prisoner.

Crimean Tatar Rustem Vaitov, who turned 31 on July 28, is one of the first four Ukrainian Muslims to have been arrested in Russian-occupied Crimea and later sentenced by a Russian court to five years or more for unproven ‘involvement’ in the peaceful Hizb ut-Tahrir organization which is legal in Ukraine. >

Almost a year after Russia’s FSB produced videos on which Crimean Tatar Redvan Suleymanov and three other Ukrainians separately ‘confessed’ to taking part in a ‘Crimean sabotage’ plot organized by Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, one of the men has been convicted of something else altogether, and the ongoing trial of Suleymanov also bares scarcely any resemblance to the original ‘plot’

Representatives of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis have lodged a formal application asking for a review of Russia’s ban of this self-governing body of the main indigenous people of Crimea which the UN International Court of Justice has agreed is discriminatory

A Russian Supreme Court appeal hearing in Moscow on July 27 could result in an innocent Ukrainian being sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment and it is of critical appearance that journalists and human rights organizations attend. .

Crimean journalist Alexei Nazimov, who has been in detention since October 2016 on questionable and suspiciously fluid charges, has reported being beaten and subjected to other forms of gross ill-treatment from convoy guards taking him to and from the court.

The imitation of a court trial in Russian-occupied Crimea of recognized political prisoner Akhtem Chiygoz is exposing highly incriminating details about Russia’s invasion for the International Criminal Court, and even more evidence of discrimination for the case already under consideration by the UN’s International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Ferat Saifullaev turns 34 on July 21, imprisoned in Russia, two and a half thousand kilometres from his wife and three children in Sevastopol, Crimea. He is one of the first four Ukrainian Muslims to have been arrested in Russian-occupied Crimea for unproven involvement in the peaceful Hizb ut-Tahrir organization which is legal in Ukraine.

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.

Germany’s Siemens Company was unperturbed that it was sending hugely expensive gas turbines to equip a non-existent Russian power plant. It only ‘noticed’ that the turbines had appeared in Russian-occupied Crimea after they were reported by the media and has since claimed, with minimum credibility, to be shocked and indignant

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

Oleg Sentsov’s trial and 20-year sentence in August 2015 were condemned as ‘ideologically motivated terror”, and his release has been demanded from the outset by all international organizations and democratic states. The Kremlin’s repeated claim that Sentsov was given a fair trial and justly convicted of ‘terrorism’ are in stark conflict with the facts.

After invading Crimea and faking a ‘referendum’ on ‘joining’ Russia, Moscow is applying strictly selective Russification in its persecution of Ukrainians