Amnesty International demands Russia immediately release Server Karametov, a 76-year-old man with Parkinson’s disease, who has been detained for holding a placard in support of persecuted Crimean Tatars.
“Arresting a frail senior citizen and throwing him behind bars for holding a placard is the latest grotesque example of the Russian authorities’ incessant crackdown on peaceful activism by the Crimean Tatar community,” Executive Director of Amnesty International Ukraine Oksana Pokalchuk said.
Late on August 9, a judge from the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Simferopol found Server Karametov guilty of resisting ‘lawful orders’ from police officers. He was sentenced to 10 days’ ‘administrative detention’ for picketing in support of prisoner of conscience Akhtem Choygoz and others outside the Supreme Court of Crimea operating under control of the de-facto authorities in the occupied region’s capital Simferopol.
In addition to his detention he was fined 10,000 rubles ($165).
Akhtem Chiygoz, who was named on the placard, is the deputy leader of the Crimean Tatar representative body Mejlis, which is banned in Russia as an ‘extremist’ organization. He has been detained since January 2015 on trumped-up charges of organizing ‘mass disturbances’ on 26 February 2014 during a protest that took place shortly before the Russian occupation and annexation of Crimea.
