Council of Europe declares ‘alert level of threat’ to journalists in occupied Crimea

The Council of Europe’s Committee to Protect Journalists issued a new warning about the threats to journalists in the Russian-occupied Crimea.

This is said in the Committee’s statement, posted on the website of the Council of Europe.

A new warning is linked with search in the home and launch of criminal case against Crimean journalist Nikolai Semena.

“On 19 April 2016, FSB agents in the Russia-annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea raided and searched the house of journalist Nikolai Semena (freelancer with Krym.Realii – RFE/RL’s Crimea service), confiscated his reporting equipment, and briefly detained him for interrogation in connection to a criminal probe on charges of making calls to separatism,” the statement reads.

According to his lawyer, FSB told Semena that he is the main suspect in the case and that he is banned from leaving the region for the period of investigation. If convicted, Semena faces up to five years in prison.

The prosecutor’s office of the self-proclaimed authorities of Crimea brought charges against the journalist after publication of the article in Krym.Realii news outlet. Semena pleads not guilty.

“Based on the lawyer’s statement, CPJ concluded that Crimea prosecutors are overseeing the probe against Semena,” the Committee adds.

The Council of Europe recalls that this case is at least the second time since the annexation of Crimea that the Russian authorities in Crimea have investigated a journalist on separatism charges.

 In March 2015, FSB agents raided the house of the parents of journalist Anna Andriyevskaya, telling her family that she was being sought on charges of making public calls for Crimean independence in a November 2014 article.

The Committee notes that the Ukrainian authorities are aware of the situation with journalist Semena and now the European Council looks forward to the response of the Ukrainian government to the message about the dangers for journalists in Crimea.

Earlier, Ukrainian human rights activist Oleksandra Matviychuk, presenting the second part of the book “Peninsula of Fear,” said that the international community should strengthen sanctions against Russia to make it not violate human rights in the occupied Crimea.