The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its protest against the illegal decisions of the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don dated July 8, 2022, to sentence three Ukrainian citizens, representatives of Crimean Tatars People.

The court issued politically motivated verdicts on the imprisonment of Ismet Ibragimov for 19 years and Oleh Fedorov and Ernest Ibragimov for 13 years each.

These decisions are another confirmation of Russia's aggressive policy aimed at destroying the Crimean Tatars and their identity.

Ismet Ibragimov was arrested in July 2020 and Oleh Fedorov and Ernest Ibragimov were detained in February 2021 by Russian security forces in the temporarily occupied Crimea after mass searches of Crimean Tatar residences. Subsequently, the detained persons were illegally relocated to the Russian Federation and unjustifiably accused by Russia, inter alia, in participating in the activities of "the terrorist organization "Hizb ut-Tahrir".

During the years of Russian temporarily occupation of Crimea, more than 90 people, most of them Crimean Tatars, have been arrested on charges of involvement in the activities of "Hizb ut-Tahrir".

Russia must overturn the court's decision and release all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens, it must end any political persecution and repression against the Crimean Tatar People, as well as by using Russian anti-terrorist legislation to prosecute them.

We call on the international community to condemn the Russian Federation's practice of prosecuting Ukrainian citizens on the temporarily occupied territories, increase political, diplomatic and sanctions’ pressure on Russia, and demand to end violations of international humanitarian law on all Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, including in the framework of the International Crimea Platform.