33 Mejlis members in danger

In principle it was a fairly ordinary appeal hearing, although with some peculiarities. In the morning, the police were on duty at the RF Supreme Court, we were in a large courtroom, and the three judges who heard the appeal had their only case today (usually a panel of three judges hears a dozen appeals in a row).

One of the judges reported on the case for a long time: what are the arguments of the prosecutor’s office, what are the motives in the decision of the Crimean court, what are the grounds and arguments for the appeal. As the party that filed the appeal, we were the first to speak (me and my colleague from the Human Rights Center “Memorial” Marina Agaltsova), proving that the Mejlis is a body of democratic representation, and not a public organization, and that a claim for recognition as extremist cannot be brought against such a body that the activity cannot be considered extremist , etc.

After the break, the prosecutor's office spoke, reading a little from its written response to our complaint and a little from its original claim (including arguments not accepted by the Crimean court, for example, the events of February 26, 2014).

The State Committee for Nationalities of Crimea spoke the least on the case, whose lawyer talked about how great life is for the Crimean Tatars now and how bad it was under Ukraine (and they will also build a mosque, it will be the largest - to the envy of Kadyrov, apparently, but this is me on my own behalf).

The court deliberated for an hour and issued only the operative part: the decision was left unchanged, the complaint was not satisfied.

As for the consequences: membership in an extremist organization is a crime under Russian law. 33 members of the Mejlis are in danger, and the authorities “on the ground” can extend the persecution to members of regional and local Mejlises, then repressions could affect hundreds.