Ukraine in PACE asks to protect rights of Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea

A Ukrainian delegation to PACE appealed to Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland and PACE President Liliane Maury Pasquier in connection with the new wave of repressions against Crimean Tatars in the temporarily occupied Crimea.

Chairperson of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Volodymyr Ariev informed this on his Facebook page.

“We urge the leaders of the Council of Europe to suspend immediately any attempts related to the unconditional return of Russian delegation to the Assembly due to the continuing violations of the rule of law by the Russian Federation and to use all available mechanisms of the Council of Europe to protect the rights of the Ukrainian citizens on the temporarily annexed Crimean peninsula,” Ariev noted.

As reported, on the morning of March 27, the officers of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the National Guard of the Russian Federation conducted searches in at least 25 houses of Crimean Tatars in the annexed Crimea within the framework of criminal cases, which had been opened against several residents of Crimea suspected of participating in the activities of the Hizb ut-Tahrir religious organization.

The court in the occupied Simferopol arrested nine Crimean Tatar activists suspected of involvement in the activities of the Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is recognized in Russia and the annexed Crimea as a terrorist organization.

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