In Crimea, Crimean Tatars were searched at least five addresses

In the annexed Crimea, in the city of Stary Krym and the village of Zhuravky, Crimean Tatars were searched at least five addresses.

As “Krymskaya solidarnost” reports, the police came to the homes of activist Lenur Yakubov, imam of the independent Muslim community “Esky Kyrym” Izet Saifullin, its chairman Idris Yurdamov, activist Shevket Kiyamov, as well as to the mosque of Stary Krym.

Yakubov and Saifullin were detained and taken to the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Crimean village of Kirovskoe. According to several sources, administrative protocols were drawn up on them – in particular, about “illegal missionary activity”.

Later, Yakubov was taken to the Kirovsky Court of Crimea and arrested for 14 days. At the same time, the correspondent of “Crimean Solidarity” Aly Seitablaev was detained at the courthouse. The police handed him a summons to the military enlistment office allegedly “to undergo psychological testing and to clarify the documents of the military record.” The rest of the citizens who came to the court to support the detainees were dispersed by riot police.

• After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Russian authorities began mass persecution of the Crimean Tatars on the peninsula. Criminal cases against them are often brought under the articles of terrorism only on the basis of searches of religious literature. At the moment, several hundred people are under arrest and in long-term imprisonment. Most of them are recognized as political prisoners by international human rights organizations. The Crimean Tatars themselves believe that they are being persecuted solely for disagreeing with the annexation of the peninsula.