The Supreme Court of Crimea supported the decision of the court in Simferopol and approved a fine for Crimean Tatar journalist Lutfiya Zudieva in the amount of 2.5 thousand rubles under the article on abuse of freedom of speech. She plans to appeal to the cassation court.

Previously, the Internal Affairs Center drew up a report against Zudiyeva for “distributing information about foreign agents in the media without indicating their status.” On her Facebook page, Lutfiye Zudieva posted several publications containing information about Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) without indicating that it was included in the register of foreign agents.

The human rights activist stated that in this case only the editorial board or founder of the media, as well as the editor-in-chief or other official can be held administratively liable. She claims that she is not the subject of an offense and, as an individual, was not obliged to comply with the requirements. Zudieva asked the court to dismiss the administrative case, since her actions lacked such signs of an administrative offense as guilt and illegality.

“There are a huge number of violations in this case, including international law – starting from freedom of speech. The most banal thing is that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is not authorized to draw up such protocols. This can only be done by the supervisory authority in the field of telecommunications and media, that is, Roskomnadzor. All this shows and proves that this is persecution for Lutfiye’s activity and activities,” said lawyer Emil Kurbedinov.