117 Crimean Tatars among 175 political prisoners held in Russian prisons

12.08.2023 08:25

Ukrinform

175 political prisoners are held in the prisons of the Russian Federation, of whom 117 are representatives of the Crimean Tatar people.

"There are currently 175 people, political prisoners, in places of detention. Of them, 117 are representatives of the Crimean Tatar people. This is the ‘democracy’ of the occupiers," Head of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center Eskender Bariyev said on the air of FREEDOM TV channel, Ukrinform reports.

The Russian Federation invents new tools to persecute people every year, Bariyev noted.

"Until 2022, they unlawfully applied their legislation regarding the prohibition of Hizb ut-Tahrir or Jehovah's Witnesses, and already in 2022, a new tool appeared: the court of the Russian Federation issued a decision recognizing the Noman Çelebicihan Battalion as a terrorist organization. In addition, new articles appeared – for discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation – both in the Administrative Code and in the Criminal Code. And there are already cases when people are prosecuted precisely in accordance with this article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation," emphasized the head of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

"Hundreds of people are prosecuted under the Administrative Code, they are fined, arrested for several days, forced to apologize publicly. There are lists of prohibited topics, prohibited literature, and prohibited songs. This is the kind of ‘democracy’ the Russian occupiers brought to Crimea," he noted.

According to Bariyev, the Russian occupiers have been trying to ban the symbols of the Crimean Tatar people since 2015. And the vast majority of arrests and detentions in Crimea are carried out against indigenous people. For six months of 2023, human rights defenders recorded 101 detentions, of which 66 were of Crimean Tatars.

"For only six months of 2023, 101 detentions were recorded, of which 66 were of indigenous people. There were 37 searches, of which 29 were carried out in the homes of Crimean Tatars. We recorded 140 cases of arrests. Of them, 93 of the Crimean Tatar people. The occupiers conducted 106 interrogations, 73 of the Crimean Tatars," he said.

Also, according to Bariyev, human rights defenders recorded 156 cases of violation of the right to a fair trial, of which 103 related to the Crimean Tatars.