President signed the law on protection of political prisoners. He mentioned this in his speech dedicated to the Memory Day of Crimean Tatar People Genocide Victims.
“Today, on this very day, I am signing the law adopted by the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) “On social and legal protection of persons deprived of personal liberty as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine, and members of their families.” This law is for the protection of all those people, ordinary peaceful civilians, who were repressed by the occupiers and who were taken prisoner by them,” Mr.Zelensky said.
To remind: on January 26, the Verkhovna Rada approved the law ” On social and legal protection of persons deprived of personal liberty as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine, and members of their families ” (No 6104).
Ms. Olha Skrypnyk, Head of the Crimean Human Rights Group, stressed out that the Law recognized institutionally categories of prisoners of war and captured civilians. “Until now, human rights organizations and ministries have lacked a unified approach whom to call captured civilians or, as we say, political prisoners, and now such an approach does exist. The law clearly stipulates this, ” Ms.Skrypnyk said.
According to her, it is important that this law ‘covers the people of both occupied Donbass and Crimea, we have a common approach to the occupied territories, we do not divide Donbas and Crimea at the state level, because in both of these places people have appeared under the Russian aggression. ”
In addition, the human rights activist noted, the law clearly defines the forms of state support, and this is not only the annual UAH 100,000 provided to the families of civilian prisoners.
