On 10 January 2019 six Ukrainian human rights civic organizations have made a Statement on persecution of advocates and human rights defenders in the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea.

The Statement strongly condemns the persecution of the advocates and human rights defenders in the temporarily occupied Crimea. Particularly it condemns the requirement of the Ministry of Justice of the RF about the exclusion of the advocate Emil Kurbedinov from so-called “Crimean Central Collegium of Advocates”

The authors of the document demand of the Russian Federation’s authorities to terminate its unlawful pressure and obstruction of the professional activity of the human rights defenders and advocates. They also demand to stop applying the Russian “anti-extremist and anti- terroristic” legislation in the temporarily occupied territory for the persecution of people due to their public activity and human rights advocacy contrary to the international humanitarian law.

In the Statement, the human rights defenders request the international community to impose personal sanctions for the persecution of the Crimean advocates and activists of “Crimean Solidarity”.

The full text of the Statement is available on the w-site of Ukrainian Helsinky Human Rights Union.