EU expresses concern over violation of rights of Crimean Tatars
The European Union expressed concern over the systematic violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the residents of the Russian-occupied Crimea and, in particular, the Crimean Tatars, the Press Officer of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, David Stulik, said.
In particular, the EU strongly condemned the illegal detention of thirteen Ukrainian citizens and representatives of the Crimean Tatars by the Russian authorities in the Crimea on February 11-12, 2016 he said in an interview with the New Time journal.
"We are also unpleasantly surprised by the intention to ban the activities of Mejlis, the Parliament of the Crimean Tatar People," the Press Officer said. In this regard, the EU calls on the Kremlin to stop all political repression and immediately release all illegally detained citizens.
The EU also reiterated the call to full, free and unrestricted access for all international human rights activists in Ukraine, including Crimea and Sevastopol, the Delegation reported.
Russia has long held 13 Ukrainian citizens, either in pretrial detention or those who have already been sentenced to prison terms, among them Nadezhda Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov, Alexander Kolchenko and Gennady Afanasyev. On February 11-12 searches of the homes of the Crimean Tatars was conducted. Twelve people were detained, four of them were arrested. On the 15th of February the Chief Prosecutor of the Peninsula, as appointed by the established Russian authorities, Natalia Poklonskaya, handed a claim to the Supreme Court of the Peninsula illegally created by Russia, to ban the activities of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People.