Occupiers in Crimea persecuting 131 people for political reasons

Iryna Verihina, a representative of the Ombudsperson for the Rights of Residents of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, made this statement at a meeting with Ambassador of Switzerland to Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova Claude Wild, representatives of the UK’s Embassy in Ukraine.

“Thus, 131 people are being persecuted for political reasons in the territory of the occupied peninsula, 113 people are in places of detention, most of them in Russia, which violates international law, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention. At present, 209 children on the peninsula are left without proper parental care,” Verihina said.

According to her, the situation is complicated by the lack of independent observers and monitoring mechanisms in the territory of the occupied peninsula.

“The occupier denies access to Crimea to independent international monitoring missions. The occupation authorities refuse to grant the Commissioner [Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights] access to Ukrainian citizens who stay in places of detention in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, testifying to human rights violations," Verihina noted.

The meeting participants discussed oppression of the rights and freedoms of Crimean residents by the occupying power, restrictions on the right to move across Ukraine, forcible passportization of the population, militarization of the temporarily occupied peninsula, illegal military conscription, persecution of Crimean Tatar Mejlis members.

According to Verihina, a significant part of these violations was not properly covered and documented due to the difficult access to the occupied territories for human rights defenders and the media.

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