Dzheppar: Russia purposefully searching for ‘terrorists’ in Crimea since 2014

Russia continues its policy of intimidation in Crimea, punishing Crimean Muslims for their religious views.

"76 years to 7 citizens of Ukraine — such judgments are delivered by the Russian ‘Themis’ over religious views of Crimean Muslims… Since 2014, Russia has been purposefully searching for ‘terrorists’ in Crimea and... finds them. So it fills the myth of "Islamic extremism" and the heroic struggle against it. This is how Russia intimidates our citizens in Crimea," First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar posted on Facebook, commenting on the consideration of the appeal in the Yalta "Hizb ut-Tahrir case."

In this context, Dzheppar noted that directing and producing skills had been again shown in considering the appeal on June 22.

"Muslim Aliyev was sentenced to 19 years in a penal colony; Enver Bekirov - 18 years; Vadym Siruk and human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku - 12 years; Refat Alimov - 8 years; Arsen Dzhepparov - 7 years. They received those terrible sentences in November 2019, and the first hearing on consideration of the appeal took place on June 22, 2020," the First Deputy Foreign Minister noted.

She said that the court had announced adjournment due to "inadequate technical support of video conference" with defendants and lawyers.

“The next court hearing is scheduled for June 25. In the meantime, I propose to join the action of Amnesty International Ukraine and to write letters to the Chief Military Prosecutor of the Russian Federation. Here you can find an e-mail address and an appeal — https://bit.ly/2NijCyv," Dzheppar added.

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