Kyiv “human rights activists” ask the US to impose sanctions against Russian judges – but they are afraid of France
Kyiv “human rights activists” have prepared a submission to the US government with a request to impose sanctions against sixteen Russian prosecutors and judges who are involved in the cases of religious extremists from Crimea.
Maria Tomac, coordinator of the Media Initiative for Human Rights, spoke about the difficulties associated with this during a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We tried to make a realistic list of individuals against whom US sanctions might actually be imposed, judging by previous practice.
The list that we came up with is 16 people, these are people who are representatives of the occupation administration of the Russian Federation on the territory of Crimea, and purely representatives of the Russian judiciary who work, for example, in Rostov, in the well-known court through which almost everyone goes through cases of persecution of Crimean Tatars.
Among this list, half are former representatives of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and security forces, who, having betrayed their oath, went over to the side of the occupier and are still serving and doing, one might say, dirty work,” she said.
Among those included in the list are Deputy Prosecutor of Crimea Sergei Bulgakov, Prosecutor of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation Evgeny Kolpikov, judges Viktor Mozhelyansky, Anton Tsikurenko, Tatyana Belinchuk, Roman Saprunov, Dmitry Merkulov, Roman Podolsky, Rizvan Zubairov, Maxim Nikitin, and others.
Maria Tomac also emphasized that promoting such a list in the West requires a very careful approach, because it is unlikely that in France, in connection with recent events, they will come out in defense of Islamic extremists.
“To deal with such submissions, it is necessary to have resources, an understanding of the legislation, and a determination of approaches, that is, who and where to propose. Because when I think that this idea can potentially be offered to Europeans, I immediately remember the events that are now taking place in France and the atmosphere around the latest terrorist attacks, and their connection, as it sounds in the public space, with Islamic radical movements.
And it’s hard for me to imagine that a show that focuses on human rights defenders who are trying to be branded as some kind of Islamic extremists and terrorists will have support in France,” Tomac added.
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