“The cases of Political Prisoners in Crimea”

20 October 2017

Today, on October 19, a press conference on “The Cases of Political Prisoners of the Crimea” was held.

It was attended by: Julia Kazdobin, adviser to the Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine on Crimea;Dilyaver Memetov, the coordinator of the association “Crimean Solidarity”, Remzi Memetov’s son who is the Kremlin’s Political Prisoner; Mumine Saliyeva, the wife of the Kremlin’s Political Prisoner Seyran Saliyev; Eskender Bariiev, member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People  and Head of the board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (CTRC); Eugenia Andreyuk, the Deputy Coordinator of the social organization “CrimeaSOS”.

Dilyaver Memetov informed on his participation in the conference on “Combating discrimination against Muslims in the OSCE countries”, where he reported on massive violations of the rights of Muslims, searches and arrests of Crimean Tatars.

Mumine Saliyeva told about the events of last weeks in the Crimea, when six Crimean Tatars were arrested including her husband Seyran Saliyev. She added that her house was searched by the occupation security forces for twice.

The next was Eskender Bariiev’s speach. He said that now the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people iscontinuing and reported the numbers of the arrested, kidnapped and killed Crimean Tatars and the number of children who left without parents. “The occupation authorities use the religiosity of the Crimean Tatars and accuse them in terrorism and extremism, although they did not find weapons, instructions or anything else.The Crimean Tatars are arrested for nothing. These people (relatives of arrestees) try to inform that Islam is not a synonym of terrorism, that Islam is a religion that calls for peaceful coexistence with neighbors,” noted the member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. At the end of speech, Eskender Bariiev urged the OSCE to develop an action plan for improving conditions of people’s stay in the occupied territories.

Reminder: the another wave of searches in Crimean Tatars’ homes in the occupied Crimea was held, after which six people were arrested, and on dozens of those who came to support compatriots the largeadministrative fines were imposed. Immediately after that, on October 14, hundreds of Crimean Tatars stood with single-person pickets calling to stop repressions against Muslims, some of them thereafter were fine