Kyiv.Ukraine.Ukraine Gate – November 1,2021- The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has protested against the ruling of the Military Court of Southern Russia convicting four Ukrainian citizens of the so-called “Third Liberation Party group based in Bakhchisaray”.
The Russian FSB illegally detained these citizens in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and charged them under Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (creating a terrorist organization “).
Also, in violation of international law, they were illegally transferred to the Russian territory, the city of Rostov-on-Don.
“By today’s so-called “sentencing” for imprisonment of Seitumer Seitumerov (for 17 years), Osman Seitumerov (14 years), Amet Suleymanov (12 years), and Rustem Seitmemetov (13 years) on trumped-up charges, the Russian Federation has once again demonstrated its policy of repression and oppression, aimed to intimidate and suppress any dissenting civil movements and initiatives in the temporarily occupied Crimea,” the comment reads.
Ukrainian diplomats say Russia must overturn the court ruling and immediately release Seitumer Seitumerov, Osman Seitumerov, Rustem Seitmetemov, and Amet Suleymanov, as well as all other illegally held Ukrainian citizens.
“We call on the international community to condemn Russia’s illegal prosecution of dissent and the systematic abuse of anti-terrorism legislation as regards Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in Crimea, to increase diplomatic pressure on Russia to release all illegally held Ukrainian citizens, and to continue protecting the rights and freedoms of the residents of the Crimean peninsula, including within the framework of the Crimea Platform,” says the comment.
On October 29, a Russian court sentenced four members of the “third Bakhchisaray group” to 12 to 17 years in a maximum-security penal colony.
A rally in support of those targeted in the case was held outside the court premises in occupied Crimea’s Simferopol, where Russian security forces detained 30 of its participants. First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar said two of those apprehended are journalists.
