Occupation court in Crimea convicts "Qirim" founder of "abusing freedom of information"

A Russian court in Crimea convicted Seyran Ibragimov, the founder of the independent Crimean Tatar newspaper "Qirim", of abusing freedom of information and fined him 250,000 rubles (almost 113,000 UAH).

The ruling was passed by the "10th district magistrate" Sergey Moskalenko, reports the human rights organization "Crimean Process".

Earlier, the Kyiv District Court of Simferopol fined the editors of the Crimean Tatar newspaper Qirim 300,000 rubles (approximately 140,230 hryvnias) for "discrediting the RF Armed Forces".

Moreover, cases over abuse of freedom of information and discreditation were open against the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Bekir Mamut.

In May of this year, Russian security forces searched the homes of the editor Bekir Mamut and the director of "Qirim" the legal entity, Seyran Ibragimov. Later, the newspaper's office was searched and the equipment was seized. Then both journalists were detained by the Russian Center for Combating Extremism, who interrogated them for several hours, not allowing lawyers to visit them.

In late May of this year, two cases against "Qirim" were opened for "discrediting Russia's armed forces and misrepresenting evidently false information as truth." According to Center E (the CCE), Bekir Mamutov "spread information aimed at discrediting the deployment of the Russian Armed Forces for the purpose of defending the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, international peacekeeping and maintaining security within the framework of the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine." In this way, according to operative Korenevsky, the newspaper "expressed disagreement with the conduct of the SMO" and committed a crime under Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.