On Wednesday, May 12, the US State Department published a report on freedom of religion in the world, in which a separate section is devoted to the situation in Crimea. The United States condemns the actions of the Russian Federation on the peninsula and calls for an end to the persecution of the Crimean Tatar people on religious grounds.
“The Russian authorities in occupied Crimea continue to harass and intimidate religious congregations of minorities, in particular Muslims – Crimean Tatars, Jehovah's Witnesses, members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the clergy”,- the report said.
The document recalled the facts of persecution in Crimea in the so-called Hizb -ut-Tahrir cases.
“The Russian occupation authorities continue to imprison Muslim Crimean Tatars, especially those suspected of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir. In September, a Russian military court sentenced seven Muslim Crimean Tatars, arrested in 2017 and 2018, to serve their sentences in a strict regime colony”, – the State Department message said.