Crimean prosecutor's office opened proceeding over sentence to blogger Memedeminov

The Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has initiated criminal proceedings in connection with the sentence to the journalist and blogger Nariman Memedeminov, issued by the Russian court, as Ukrinform reported citing the press secretary of prosecutor's office Kateryna Didenko.

"The Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomy has started criminal proceedings on the illegal conviction of the public activist in Crimea," Didenko said.

According to her, the occupying regime is trying to "destroy any display of freedom of expression and freedom of opinion in Crimea and Nariman Mamedeminov's unlawful conviction to deprivation of liberty is an obvius example of this."

“The afore-referenced measures taken by the occupying law enforcement officers and judges of the Russian Federation have signs of violation of the laws and customs of war, as Nariman Memedeminov was deprived of the right to a fair trial. It also illegally applied criminal legislation of the Russian Federation, which is a serious violation of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians during the War of 1949, ”the prosecutor's office said.

As reported by IMI, on October 2, the Southern Military District Court of Russia's Rostov-on-Don sentenced journalist, blogger from Crimea Nariman Memedeminov to two and a half years , who was accused of public calls for terrorism.

On October 1, Memedeminov made the final statement calling the justice and the law "pre-configured" in Russia, and called on journalists to continue to work on informing about the situation in the Crimea and lawsuits against the inhabitants of the peninsula.

On September 27, Russian prosecutor Aleksey Aydinov demanded a six-year prison sentence for Memedeminov.

On June 25, 2019, the North Caucasian Court in Rostov-on-Don started a trial on the merits in the case of Memedeminov.

On March 22, 2018, in Simferopol Russian law enforcement officers detained the Crimean civic journalist Nariman Memediminov. On March 23, the court issued an order to arrest Memedeminov. The detainee has been charged under the part 2 of Art. 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Public appeals to terrorist activities committed by means of the Internet”). On March 23, 2018 the Crimean public prosecutor’s office (Ukraine) instituted criminal proceedings against activity of Russian prosecution against Nariman Memedeminov, based on the part 2 of Art.146 (“Illegal deprivation of liberty or theft of a person”), part 2 of Art. 162 (“Violation of inviolability of housing”) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.