The children, wives and parents of political prisoners were among hundreds of Crimean Tatars who gathered in Simferopol on December 11 to greet Emil Kurbedinov as he was released from custody. The rights lawyer had been imprisoned for the second time over one pre-annexation social media post, with the latest arrest and five-day sentence part of ongoing pressure on Kurbedinov himself and all lawyers defending victims of persecution in Russian-occupied Crimea.
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Halya Coynash: Huge crowd greets released Crimean Tatar lawyer Emil Kurbedinov
Emil Kurbedinov, the lawyer and human rights defender, talks on the phone to his colleague Edem Semedlyaev on Oct. 13, 2016 in front of the Kyiv district court house in Simferopol, Crimea.
