EU calls for end to persecution of Crimean Tatar community

The sentencing in absentia of Refat Chubarov, Chairman of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar People’s self-governing body, constitutes a serious violation of his human rights and another example of the persecution of the Crimean Tatar community by the Russian ‘authorities’, the European External Action Service said in a statement on 3 June.

On 1 June, a so-called Russia-run court in the Ukrainian city of Simferopol sentenced Chubarov to six years of prison and a fine for politically motivated charges.

According to the statement, the sentencing “further illustrates the severe deterioration of human rights on the Crimean Peninsula since its illegal annexation”.

“The ban on the activities of the Mejlis must be reversed without further delay. The EU reiterates that all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens on the Crimean peninsula must be released immediately,” the statement says.

The European Union reiterated that that it “does not recognise Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula and therefore does not, and will not, recognise this ‘sentence’ by an illegal court.”

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