On Saturday 2 July 2016 Oleksandr Shestakovych, organizer of a small picket calling for the release of jailed Ukrainians including, among others, filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and civic activist Oleksandr Kolchenko, was detained in Crimea and charged with infringing public assembly rules. As Halya Coynash, writing for Human Rights in Ukraine, reports, the video of the picket shows the young men simply standing in a row with placards in defence of political prisoners: "The police appeared and demanded to see their ‘permit’. One of the men explained that they had sent notification of the planned picket, and had received a note saying that it had been sent elsewhere. They had not received the ‘permit’ that is expressly not required by Ukraine’s Constitution and implicitly not by Russia’s. After long discussion, they insisted that Oleksandr Shestakovych go with them to the police station."
Oleksandr Shestyakovych now faces a fine or administrative arrest under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation.
Photo: Human Rights in Ukraine. The placard reads in English: 'Today it’s them, tomorrow it could be any of us'Source: Halya Coynash, Crimean activist detained for defence of political prisoners Sentsov & Kolchenko, Human Rights in Ukraine, 4 July 2016 |