The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine condemns the shameful sentences issued today by the so-called “court” in Rostov-on-Don to the citizens of Ukraine Servet Gaziev, Dzhemil Gafarov, Alim Karimov, Seyran Murtaza and Erfan Osmanov, who were sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment each.

Ukrainian citizens were detained on politically motivated charges by Russian security forces during mass searches in March 2019 on the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea. They are among the last five of the 25 detained within the Hizb ut-Tahrir case.

During the long consideration of the "court case", the Russian side showed an inhumane attitude towards political prisoners and denied them proper medical care, in particular, Dzhemil Gafarov, who is a person with a disability of the 2nd group, and 61-year-old Servet Gaziev.

The so-called Russian justice repeatedly violated the procedural rights of the "defendants" - it forbade them to speak in the Crimean Tatar language during court debates and denied the right to the last word.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine calls on the international community and partners of Ukraine, in particular, within the framework of the International Crimea Platform, to continue political and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation until the full and unconditional release of all illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens, as well as to impose sanctions on officials responsible for committing politically motivated repressions against citizens of Ukraine.