Sentencing of Tatar Leader in Crimea Is Called a Sham
In an interview, Mr. Polozov called the sentence "politically motivated," and said it was meant "to intimidate Tatars not loyal to the current administration in Crimea." The prosecution said
that two people had died and scores were injured in riots outside the Crimean Parliament building during a rally by supporters of the Tatar assembly on Feb. 26, 2014.
Akhtem Chiygoz, 52, a former deputy head of the assembly
that represented the Tatars when Ukraine controlled Crimea, was found guilty of inciting mass riots, specifically a large rally in February 2014 protesting the Russian presence in Crimea.
Oksana Pokalchuk said that The unfair trial of Akhtem Chiygoz tops a wave of spurious
and demonstrably false criminal and administrative cases instigated by the occupying Russian authorities against members of the Tatar community,
Tatar leaders accuse Russia of using various methods to try to intimidate them — including trials, frequent house searches and the unveiling of a statue in downtown Simferopol of Catherine the Great, the ruler who claimed Crimea for Russia in 1783,
that includes a tableau of Tatar leaders kneeling before her.
Most important, he said, was that Crimea was part of Ukraine, not Russia, at the time of the protest
that Mr. Chiygoz was accused of inciting, and that Russian law therefore did not apply.
11, 2017
MOSCOW — A Russian court in the contested Crimean peninsula sentenced a minority Tatar politician to eight years in prison on Monday, in a trial
that his lawyers and human rights organizations called a sham.
