Occupiers detain more than 30 people in Crimea, including four journalists

First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar has stated that Russia must immediately end detentions and arrests in the temporarily occupied Crimea and release all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens.

 “New detentions of Crimean Tatar activists in Crimea. There are women and journalists among 31 detainees. They welcomed lawyer Edem Semedlyaev, whose arrest had ended. Russia must immediately end arbitrary detentions and arrests and release all illegally detained citizens of Ukraine,” Dzheppar posted on Twitter.

Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova wrote in Telegram that a total of 31 activists had been detained, including ten women and four journalists.

“Now people stay in the Kyivsky District Police Department of Simferopol. They are to be transferred to different police departments,” the Ombudsperson added.

Denisova condemned “illegal detentions of Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied Crimea.”

She emphasized that “by its actions, the occupying power violates Article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, according to which everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right includes, inter alia, the freedom to hold opinions and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”

On November 23, in the occupied Crimea, lawyer Edem Semedlyaev was released from the Simferopol temporary detention facility after 12 days of administrative arrest. Dozens of activists came to welcome Semedlyaev and were detained by Russian law enforcement officers. Thirty-one detainees, including women and journalists, were taken to the Kyivsky District Police Department of Simferopol.

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