In the first half of 2020, 48 arrests were recorded in the occupied Crimea, 16 of which were against Crimean Tatars. The dynamics of the number of arrests shows a slight decline: in 2019, 69 cases of arrests were recorded in the first half of the year. This, according to experts of the CTRC, is associated with the coronavirus pandemic. This is stated in the analysis of human rights violations in the occupied Crimea for the first half of 2020 by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.
A number of recorded arrests were carried out after the searches. Residents of Crimea were detained on suspicion of involvement in the organizations Hizb ut-Tahrir and Jehovah's Witnesses banned in the Russian Federation, allegedly participating in the volunteer Noman Çelebicihan battalion, on suspicion of allegedly public calls to carry out terrorist / extremist activities, preparation for participation in the activities of a terrorist organization, alleged espionage in favor of Ukraine, allegedly illegal acquisition, storage, transportation of explosives and ammunition, etc. The listed formal reasons for detentions are regular after the occupation.
Also, during the reporting period, there were systemic cases of detentions on the administrative border with the occupied Crimea, in particular, of the activists and Ukrainian servicemen.
We remind that in the first half of 2020, at least 23 searches were recorded in the occupied Crimea, 13 of which were carried out in the dwellings of the Crimean Tatars. This figure is significantly lower than the number of searches in the first half of 2019. Then the CTRC recorded 73 searches.