Russia’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal against a ban on the Crimean Tatar representative body, the Mejlis, in Moscow on Sept. 29.
Crimea’s Supreme Court outlawed the organization in April, branding it as extremist. The Crimean Tatar Mejlis then appealed against the court’s ruling.
Defense lawyer Kirill Koroteev said it was no surprise that the Russian Supreme Court dismissed the appeal.
He added that there may now be further consequences for the Crimean Tatar Mejlis.
“Individual members of Crimean Tatar Mejlis may face prosecution, because membership of an extremist organization is (illegal),” he said. “This may then concern hundreds of Crimean Tatars who are active in their local communities (through) their local Mejlis.”
Koroteev said that if those who are connected with the Mejlis follow a “course that is not welcomed by Crimean authorities,” it could trigger their prosecution.
He added that there was a possibility of appealing the Russian Supreme Court’s decision in the European Court of Human Rights, and that he would be advising the Mejlis to do so.
The leadership of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis has been opposing Russian occupation of Crimea since its beginning in February 2014. Immediately after taking over the peninsula, the Russian authorities banned Head of Mejlis Mustafa Dzhemilev from entering Crimea.
As Russia’s Supreme Court considered the appeal on the morning of Sept. 29, dozens of activists gathered on Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square to protest against the Mejlis ban.
Activists waved the Crimea Tatar flag, and held #StopCrimeanTatarGenocide signs, as well as signs calling for the release of prominent Crimean Tatar activists Akhtem Chiyhoz, Mustafa Dehermendzhy and Ilmi Umerov, imprisoned in Crimea.
“A ban on the Mejlis is a ban on the people,” read one sign.
Refat Chubarov, the chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, said that if the Russian court didn’t amend its initial ruling on the ban, 2,500 people with various levels of Mejlis membership would be deemed “extremists.”
“Today Russia’s Supreme Court is considering this decision to ban the Mejlis,” Chubarov said. “We know what the decision will be, we’re ready for it, and all of our thousands of activists remain devoted to their land, their people.”
Switching to his native language, Chubarov then said that Russia’s occupation of Crimea would end and “we will again be united.”
The Mejlis ban follows a series of arrests of Crimean Tatars and raids of their homes by Russia’s occupation authorities in Crimea, in what has been regarded as an attack on the Crimean Tatars and human rights in general on the peninsula.
The co-founder and coordinator of NGO CrimeaSOS, Tamila Tasheva, who also spoke at the rally, said the Russian authorities were seeking to marginalize Crimean Tatars in the eyes of the Crimean population.
“They’re launching criminal proceedings against Crimean Tatars – ones linked with extremist activities, with terrorism,” Tasheva said. “We all understand that these proceedings are not connected with extremism or terrorism but connected, primarily, with the oppression of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians that live on the territory of Crimea.”
