Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Member of Parliament of Ukraine Refat Chubarov has told Ukrainian TV Channel 5 that the Russian-controlled occupation authorities are increasing pressure on the Crimean Tatars on the annexed peninsula.
Activists in Russia's St. Petersburg staged single-person pickets on November 18 in support of the Crimean Tatars, and against reprisals in the Russian-occupied Crimean, according to Strategy-18 public initiative, as reported by RFE/RL's Ukrainian service.
Deputy Chairmen of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Ilmi Umerov and Akhtem Chiygoz, who have recently been freed by Russia and extradited to Turkey, have arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine, according to Ukrainian journalist and coordinator of the Stop Terror Group Semen Kabakaev.
Deputy chairmen of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Ilmi Umerov and Akhtem Chiygoz, who were freed by Russia and extradited to Turkey, are expected to arrive in Kyiv by plane on October 27, according to acting minister for information policy Emine Dzheppar (Dzhaparova).
The European Union has welcomed the release of deputy chairmen of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov and called on Russia to release all unlawfully arrested citizens of Ukraine.
Russian lawyer Nikolay Polozov has announced that Ukrainian political prisoners, Crimean Tatars Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov, who were convicted by the Russian occupying authorities in the annexed Crimea, have been freed from criminal prosecution.
The United Nations declares that the Russian Federation must refrain from maintaining or imposing limitations on the ability of the Crimean Tatar community to conserve its representative institutions, including the Mejlis, according to the Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine (February 16 to 15 May 15, 2017) from UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, published on June 13, 2017.
A Crimean Tatar leader who has criticized Russia's seizure of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine has gone on trial on June 7, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
The occupying authorities in Russian-annexed Crimea are not going to unban the Crimean Tatar People's Mejlis, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
On March 29, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people filed a suit with the European Court of Human Rights in connection with the fact that the Russian authorities included the Mejlis in the list of extremist organizations, effectively banning its activities, including in the occupied Crimea, Memorial human rights center reports.