Russia keeps 116 Crimean residents in prison on politically motivated charges

"At the end of 2021, at least 116 persons deprived of liberty due to political or religious reasons were still kept in custody under ‘Crimean’ criminal cases," reads the report on the human rights situation in Crimea for 2021, published on the CHRG website, Ukrinform reports.

In addition, according to the CHRG, nine people are under house arrest on politically motivated charges.

According to human rights activists, the largest group of people prosecuted in this category of "cases" are participants in the "Crimean Muslims case."

“As of the end of 2021, the number of Crimean residents imprisoned under the

‘Case of Crimean Muslims’ totaled 79. Five persons more are restricted in their movement: three are under police supervision and shall not leave the occupied territory, two are under house arrest,” reads the report.

The defendants in the “case” are accused of being affiliated with the ‘Hizb ut-Tahrir’ organization or propagandizing activities of the organizations declared terrorist or extremist in the Russian Federation though they are not such according to the Ukrainian laws.

As noted, the “cases” are considered in violation of the right to a fair trial, the main

evidence for the court is the testimony of anonymous witnesses (many of whom are

officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service), pre-trial testimony of witnesses who later declare in court that such testimony was given under duress, and linguistic examinations of conversations of the accused Muslims.

The evidence provided by the defense is usually not accepted by the “judges”, the human rights activists note.

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