On Monday, September 19, 27 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from seven CE member states supported the declaration of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Long-term political persecution of the Crimean Tatars in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
“After the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the persecution of the Crimean Tatars only intensified. As in Crimea, the Russian occupants systematically persecute representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people in the settlements of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Since the beginning of September 2022, there are 106 (7 from the Kherson region) Crimean Tatars deprived of personal freedom as a result of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine,” the PACE website says.
The signatories of the document cited as an example the case of Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis Nariman Dzhelyal, who in 2021 took part in the events of the Crimean Platform, for which he is actually under investigation. The court decided that the verdict would be announced on September 21, 2022. For his pro-Ukrainian position and unshakable will, the occupants are actually asking for 20 years in prison.
“We draw the attention of the entire international community to the ongoing persecution of representatives of the Crimean Tatar people, we call for increased pressure on the Russian occupiers by all available mean”,- the statement added.