Week-ending 26 November 2021
“We demand that the Russian authorities stop their practice of detaining participants of peaceful gatherings and of not letting journalists carry out their professional duties. We express our professional solidarity with our civic journalist colleagues in Crimea who are carrying out important work in providing coverage of the struggle of Crimean activists.”
- -from a statement by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine demanding the release of 21 Crimean Tatars, including five civic journalists from Crimean Solidarity, detained on 23 November while trying to report on the release of lawyer Edem Semedlyaev after the latter spent 12 days imprisoned for carrying out his duties as a lawyer. The 21 individuals were all jailed for terms of up to 14 days.
Sources:
Human Rights in Ukraine, 24 November 2021: Russia is turning to open terror against Crimean Tatars with nobody spared. 31 Crimean Tatars were detained on Tuesday evening after arriving at the temporary detention centre in occupied Simferopol for the release of lawyer Edem Semedlyaev who had just spent 12 days in detention for carrying out his work and properly representing people earlier detained. Among those seized on 23 November were ten women and four civic journalists, reporting on the events for Crimean Solidarity. In total violation even of Russian legislation, three women have been held in detention overnight, although all three have small children.
Human Rights in Ukraine, 25 November 2021: A court in Russian-occupied Crimea has jailed 21 Crimean Tatars, including five civic journalists, for up to 14 days after they were detained on 23 November while trying to report on the release of lawyer Edem Semedlyaev after the latter spent 12 days imprisoned for carrying out his duties as a lawyer. ‘Administrative arrest’ in the case of the journalists is considerably less savage than the 15-20-year sentences which eleven other journalists in occupied Crimea are either already serving or are facing, but it is nonetheless shocking, not least because the Russian occupiers are quite brazenly arresting journalists as they carry out their professional duties.
