In the first quarter of 2021, 22 searches were recorded in the occupied Crimea, 5 of which were carried out in the houses of the Crimean Tatars. This indicator is higher than the number of searches in the first quarter of 2020. Then the CTRC recorded 15 searches. Thus, the trend of persecution for political and religious reasons has remained unchanged since the beginning of the occupation of the peninsula. This is stated in the analysis of human rights violations in the occupied Crimea for the first quarter of 2021 of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.
In January, three searches were recorded: a wife of the political prisoner Ivan Yatskin and of those suspected of justifying terrorism via social networks. In February, security officials conducted 10 searches within the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses case, the so-called Hizb ut-Tahrir case and the activist Ludovica Papadopolu. In March, 9 searches were recorded, which were related to the so-called case of Jehovah's Witnesses.
During searches, security forces often violate the rights of victims. In particular, during penetration into dwellings, cases of damage to property were recorded, or a search was carried out in the absence of the owner, or the planting of prohibited literature took place.
We remind that the Crimean Tatar Resource Center presented an analysis of violations of human rights in the occupied Crimea over the first quarter of 2021. According to the organization, during the reporting period, Russian security forces conducted 22 searches, 146 arrests / detentions and 23 interrogations, interviews and conversations. The total number of arrests in the first three months of this year is 45: 10 – new arrests, 16 – extensions of detention, 19 – sentences. There were 113 cases of violation of the right to a fair trial, 51 – to the healthcare access. Also, 33 cases of transferring of political prisoners of Crimea were recorded. The CTRC report also contains information on the violation of religious rights, environmental norms on the peninsula, on inappropriate conditions in pre-trial detention centers and prisons, on the violation of the rights of political prisoners and illegal military exercises in the occupied Crimea.