Occupiers in Crimea have opened 350 cases for discrediting the Russian army in 15 months – study
In the 15 months since the start of the full-scale invasion, the occupiers in Crimea have opened 350 cases for discrediting the Russian army and being vocally pro-Ukraine. Recently, the number of prosecuted cases has grown by more than 1.5 times, and Crimeans are being convicted at the average rate of one person per day.
This is evidenced by the study by of the human rights group "Crimean Process".
According to the activists, a noticeable rise in prosecuted cases occurred in the winter, when 65 Crimeans were put on trial for their patriotic views, and over the past three months, the Russian occupiers have opened 103 cases, of which 16 have not yet been tried, one person has been acquitted, one case was sent back for revision, and 85 Crimeans were found guilty.
A considerable part of prosecutions concerns people who make critical or pro-Ukrainian posts on social media. At the same time, the activists have recorded some dubious forms of the alleged "discrediting", such as an Instagram photos of a person wearing a vyshyvanka and yellow-blue manicure or a tattoo of the map of Ukraine.
"In some cases, it is seriously doubtful whether there have been any statements discrediting or targeting the Russian army, but the court has never ordered a linguistic examination," the study stresses.
The authors point out that the occupation courts mostly hide the rulings in these cases: only 40% of the decisions on administrative offenses are publicly available. In addition, in 62% of cases, the time and place of trials in such cases is made public with a significant delay, sometimes two weeks after the trial. Also, the activists emphasize that in trials on such violations, 70% of judges are either traitors who are wanted in Ukraine or Russians performing their work in the occupied territory in contradiction to the Geneva Convention.
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