The occupation court passed a criminal sentence on a citizen of Ukraine, a representative of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, Appaz Kurtamet, to 7 years in prison in a strict regime colony on trumped-up charges of allegedly “creating an armed formation not provided for by federal law, leading such a formation or financing it”. The guy is only 21 years old.

The occupiers detained him on July 23, 2022, when Appaz went to visit his relatives from the temporarily uncontrolled Novooleksiivka (Genichesk district) to the occupied Crimea. As soon as the boy arrived at the so-called “checkpoint” on the administrative border, he lost all contact with the authorities. The next day, his mother received a phone call informing her that Appaz had been detained during the document control. After that, until October 8, nothing was known about his status and whereabouts.

On February 17, 2023, the occupiers began the trial. During 4 sessions, the occupation court “considered” a fabricated case: “The “accusations” were that the defendant had transferred funds to a member of the Crimea volunteer battalion. And yesterday, occupation judge Oksana Karchevska announced an illegal sentence for the political prisoner – 7 years in prison.

We would like to remind you that the occupiers continue to persecute Ukrainian citizens in all the territories temporarily under their control. Human rights activists are aware of more than one and a half hundred cases of persecution of residents of Kherson region and their forced transfer to Crimea.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)