STATEMENT
by Verkhovna Rada Committee on Human Rights,
National Minorities and Interethnic Relations
on "in absentia arrest"
of people's deputy
and Head of Mejlis of Crimean Tatar people
Refat Chubarov
by Russian Federation's court
On October 6, 2015, illegally established by the Russian Federation the Kyivskyi District Court of the city of Simferopol (Russia-annexed Crimea) passed a ruling on arrest of people's deputy of Ukraine, Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and President of the World Congress of the Crimean Tatars Refat Chubarov.
So-called "judicial body" ruled to arrest (for the period of 2 months) Refat Chubarov accused by the illegally founded Department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol of the crime envisioned by Section 2 of Article 280.1 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation (propaganda of breaching territorial integrity of the Russian Federation). The said arrest will take effect from the moment of his possible extradition to the territory of the Russian Federation or his possible detention on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The quasi-ruling on "arrest" of Refat Chubarov is another intention of the occupation regime to reckon with those, who has opposed lawlessness of the aggressor country on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol since the very first day of the occupation.
Representatives of the pro-Russian authorities of the temporarily occupied peninsula continue failing to undermine the image of Ukraine and discredit the territorial integrity of our state and prevent from returning of Crimea to sovereign and integral Ukraine.
In particular, the puppet authorities of the peninsula continue trying to discredit local national self-government bodies of the Crimean Tatars - Crimean residents, activists of Crimean-Tatar national movement, members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people; opened a number of falsified criminal cases against Crimean residents/activists of the people's movement.
Russia continues to keep Ukrainian political prisoners/residents of Crimea — Akhtem Zhiigoz, Alienation Asanov, Rustem Vaitov, Mustafa Degermendzhi, Ruslan Zeitullauev, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Buri Primova, Ferat Saifullayev and Oleh Sentsov — in custody.
Such illegal actions of the punitive agencies of the Russian Federation on the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea and the representatives of self-appointed Government of Crimea are fully in line with jurisdiction of international judicial bodies engaged in protection of fundamental civil rights and freedoms.
The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations requests President Petro Poroshenko to do the best to protect rights and freedoms of the Ukrainian citizens living on temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
Chairperson of the Committee
Hryhorii Nemyria