On Tuesday 31 January, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS) called for the respect of the rights of human rights lawyer Emil Kurbedinov, and for his release.
"The administrative detention of human rights lawyer Emil Kurbedinov on 26 January in Simferopol, Crimean peninsula, continues a worrying trend of increasingly frequent attacks on the vital work conducted by human rights defenders to protect the rights of Crimean Tatars and of those who do not recognise the illegal annexation of the peninsula by the Russian Federation", the EEAS spokesperson stated in a press release. The day he was arrested, Kurbedinov was declared guilty of propaganda for extremist organisations and was sentenced to ten days' detention.
The EEAS spokesperson also wanted the allegations of extremism against Ilmi Umerov, the deputy chairman of the Mejlis (the representative body of the Crimean Tatars), to be withdrawn and for Umerov's right to a lawyer to be fully respected. The EEAS spokesperson said that these allegations were "another example of the persecution" of Tatar leaders (see EUROPE 11611).
Saying that the EU has consistently raised the subject of the worsening human rights situation on the Crimean peninsula (particularly that of the Tatars) since its illegal annexation by the Russian Federation, the EEAS spokesperson stated that the EU continued to call for full, free and unhindered access of international human rights observers to the peninsula. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)