Russia continues its attack on freedom of speech in Crimea

The other day, the Kyivskyi District Court in Simferopol (Crimea), subordinate to russia, considered an appeal against the fine of human rights defender and journalist Lutfiye Zudiyeva.

As earlier reported, on February 22, 2024, the staff of the E center conducted an examination in the apartment of Lutfiye Zudiyeva in Dzhankoi (Crimea). Two protocols were filed against the journalist: one under Section 2 and the second under Section 2.1 of Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the russian federation on abuse of freedom of mass information.

From the point of view of media experts and media trainers, the content of the article is meaningless because if there were freedom of information in Crimea, then it would be a human right; everyone could use it, and any use of the right to freedom of information cannot be interpreted as “abuse of freedom.” In fact, the fact is that in Crimea, according to the russian legislative system, there is no freedom of information since this system has many “pseudo-legal” and completely illegal restrictions. That is why the so-called russian “law enforcement officers” do not protect human rights, but rather limit them.

As Crimean Solidarity reports, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Crimea, in particular deputy minister Aleksey Dmitriev, initiated the survey. During the examination, which turned into a real search, her husband and children, aged 10 and 12, were also in Lutfiye Zudiyeva‘s house. The police seized from the journalist and her family all the equipment and flash drives, a collection of texts by political prisoner Nariman Dzhelal I’m Staying, and a collection of reports by russian human rights activists Yakunin’s Readings.

In April, the so-called Peace Court fined the human rights activist RUB 2,000 for two posts on the Internet. The first one is about the court session, at which the prosecutor asked the participants of the Bilohirsk Group in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case to receive huge terms. The second is about the fact that the residents of Crimea were going to hold events to support the victims in the case. The “court” found Lutfiye Zudieva guilty of disseminating information about an organization banned on the territory of the russian federation (Section 2 of Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the russian federation), which in russia is considered to be the Hizb ut-Tahrir party.

The report on the human rights defender was drawn up by Ruslan Shambazov, the head of the department of the E Center. In his report, he actually indicated that Zudieva is a journalist and “uses her Facebook page for official purposes.” But what goals Shambazov was talking about and how it is related to the materials of a specific administrative case – he did not explain in the report.

Lutfiye Zudiyeva emphasized that the list of banned groups includes the Party of Islamic Liberation (Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami) itself but not the Bilohirsk Group of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which was named so due to a geographical feature, and not a court case, about which was discussed in the publications. Therefore, the law was not violated on her part. The “court” did not listen to this argument and left the decision to bring her to administrative responsibility in force. Emil Kurbedinov, Lutfiye Zudiyeva‘s lawyer, told journalists about this.

Emil Kurbedinov called the decision of the appellate instance “expected.” He noted that he and Lutfiye Zudieva will appeal it in the cassation procedure.

“This is a big nonsense. I think that based on the materials of the case, the court has in mind not the law but some other requirements. The court did not rely either on the law or clear other procedures established in the legal relationship between publications in the mass media and the law on freedom of information and freedom of speech. Lutfiye Zudiyeva, as a private person, published information on the court hearings in the case of Bilohirsk Group on a private channel. The state, in the form of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary that plays along with them, intends to ensure that no information for the people about such high-profile political trials is announced so that people keep silent and don’t even tell the facts without any coloring, as Lutfiye did,” said Emil Kurbedinov.

The lawyer also added that if the court of cassation does not cancel the illegal decision against the human rights defender, he intends to appeal to international authorities.

NUJU Information Service