Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariiev spoke at the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on the topic: Freedom of religion or belief: the role of digital technologies and civil society actors in promoting this human right for all. Bariev spoke about violations of human rights in the occupied Crimea and stressed that the Russian Federation is unlawfully using its legislation in order to suppress the non-violent struggle of the Crimean Tatars.
Bariiev noted that since the spring of 2020, the aggressor state began to actively use the quarantine situation for the participation of officials of the occupation power and their accomplices in planned online events of international organizations.
“The Crimean Tatar Resource Center even made an appeal to the International Organizations “On the Prevention of Participation in International Events Held Online by Representatives of the Russian Occupation Structures in Crimea” on June 24, 2020, in connection with the speech of Georgiy Muradov, the so-called Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic Crimea – Permanent Representative of the Republic of Crimea to the President of the Russian Federation.As the so-called official of the occupation power, Georgiy Muradov, spoke on behalf of the allegedly public organization Russian Association for International Cooperation at the II Additional OSCE Human Dimension Meeting Freedom of Expression, Media and information”,- he stressed.
The head of the CTRC recalled the illegal verdict of the Southern District Military Court of the Russian Federation of November 3, 2020 to the defendants of the so-called Krasnohvardiiske Hizb ut-Tahrir case. In addition, he said that since the beginning of the occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, digital technologies are actively used on the peninsula to persecute residents to fight dissent, as well as religious beliefs.
“They arrange illegal wiretapping of recordings of conversations in houses and in mosques; during court hearings, the practice of so-called secret witnesses is actively used, whose voices are changed; the occupation authorities in Crimea are actively using photos and video recordings of people, then they are subjected to repressive measures; FSB uses posts or comments from people on social networks 6-10 years ago, with the aim of harassing and intimidating people”,- he explained.