Section: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (Ukraine)
New law proposing to give politicians control over anti-corruption agencies withdrawn after protest?
A bill just tabled in Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada would allow parliament to dismiss the heads of independent anti-corruption agencies, whose scope includes investigating corruption by those same politicians. …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection...
Legal experts demolish the allegations against Mikheil Saakashvili as his associate jailed
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General cane up with apparently serious allegations on December 5, as well as some intercepted telephone conversations, to back the aborted attempt to detain Mikheil Saakashvili which made headlines throughout the world. While Saakashvili remains at liberty, his close associate Severion Dangadze has been remanded in...
Russia adds a vital source of information about rights abuse in occupied Crimea to its list of ‘foreign agents’
Russia has used the recent requirement in the USA that its propaganda outlets RT and Sputnik register with FARA to add Krym.Realii, one of the only media resources providing information about politically-motivated prosecutions and other rights abuses in Russian-occupied Crimea to its list of ‘foreign agents’ …read more Source:...
Ukraine’s strange collaboration with Russia over deportations
Ukraine has been in a state of undeclared war with Russia since the latter’s invasion of Crimea in early 2014 and its aggression in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian Security Service [SBU] are not loath at times to make use of this, claiming a ‘Russian link’ where there is almost certainly none. More often, however, they demonstrate a...
Russia set to begin its latest Crimean trial on ethnic and religious grounds
Safiye Kuku spent her 7th birthday outside a Crimean court on December 4 hoping in vain to see her father, human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku. At this last detention hearing before Kuku and five other men are taken to Russia for ‘trial’, the men’s wives and mothers were allowed to be present, but not the children. …read more...
Russian who defended Ukraine in Donbas driven out to face imprisonment in Russia
Yulia Tolopa, a Russian who fought for Ukraine in one of the first volunteer battalions back in 2014 and whose small daughter is a Ukrainian citizen, is being forced out of Ukraine despite the strongest of grounds for fearing her persecution in Russia. The situation is insultingly absurd since she can only obtain the document confirming her lack...
Ukraine Politicians Embrace Extreme Rhetoric
Despite some major reforms, Ukraine still suffers from widespread corruption and a malfunctioning court system. In this environment, politicians on all sides have been rushing to claim that they are the true leaders in the fight for corruption …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection...
Ukrainian political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh released under ‘insane’ house arrest
After being jailed in Russian-occupied Crimea for almost a year on flagrantly falsified charges, Ukrainian activist and farmer Volodymyr Balukh has been placed under house arrest. While Balukh’s elderly mother is, of course, overjoyed, Balukh himself called the ruling ‘insane’, since it prohibits him from leaving the house (or using...
Crimean Tatar political prisoner jailed for Crimea Solidarity named Ukraine’s Volunteer of the Year
One of the Crimea Solidarity activists arrested in Russian-occupied Crimea in October this year has been named Ukraine’s Volunteer of the Year. Marlen (Suleyman) Asanov had long been known for his generosity in helping people in need. When, under Russian occupation, the armed searches and arrests began, he became an active member of Crimea...
Council of Europe will betray its human rights mandate by giving in to Russia, Mr Jagland
The Council of Europe is considering reinstating Russia’s voting rights which were withdrawn after Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014. Crimea remains under occupation with ever-mounting human rights abuse, making the reference given to the Council of Europe’s ‘human rights mandate’ as excuse for removing...
