03/06/2021 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday, 3 June, the European External Action Service spokesperson denounced the sentencing in absentia of Refat Chubarov, chairman of the Mejlis—the Crimean Tatar people’s autonomous body—to six years in prison and a fine for “politically-motivated charges” by a “so-called” court run by Russia in the “Ukrainian city Simferopol”. Mr Chubarov is accused of inciting mass riots near the Crimean Parliament in February 2014. “The European Union does not recognise Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula and therefore does not, and will not, recognise this ‘sentence’ by an illegal court”, the spokesperson warned in a statement. In his opinion, this sentencing is a “serious violation of his human rights” as well as “another example of the persecution of the Crimean Tatar community by the Russian ‘authorities’”. (CG)