Human rights group: Elections in Crimea could lead to new wave of repression
The electoral process in the annexed Crimea could lead to a new wave of repression if the Crimean people publicly express their opposition to it, the chairperson of the Crimean Human Rights Group, Olha Skrypnyk, said in comments to independent Ukrainian radio broadcast Hromadske.
“The so-called election process in the Crimea may lead to a new wave of repression. If people are going to publicly disclose or write that they do not agree with these elections, urging people not to go to those elections, it could lead to a new wave of administrative and criminal persecution,” she said.
According to her, in this case, the “infringement of territorial integrity” article of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation could be used. Skrypnyk also reported that human rights defenders will not monitor the electoral process because the Russian State Duma elections within the territory of the annexed Crimea are illegal.
Earlier on the broadcast channel 112 Ukraine, Skrypnyk said that the Crimean Human Rights Group has become aware that the de facto Crimean government “uses the so-called administrative resource to force people to go to these elections, for example, under threat of dismissal or loss of pay.”
“Now we are collecting this information and if I get some facts confirmed, we will write about this in more detail,” she added.