On Thursday, April 27, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center presented an online analysis of human rights violations in the occupied Crimea for the first quarter of 2022. According to the organization, during the reporting period, Russian security forces conducted 10 searches, 59 arrests/holds and 69 interrogations, interviews and conversations. The total number of arrests in the first three months of this year is 31. There were 104 cases of violation of the right to a fair trial, 11 – to the highest attainable level of physical and mental health. Also, 3 cases of transferring of political prisoners in Crimea were recorded. In addition, the speakers presented an analysis of human rights violations in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions during the full-scale war.
The online conference was attended by Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Head of the Department of Legal Affairs and Foreign Affairs of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Eskender Bariiev, Communications Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center Tetiana Podvorniak.
According to the CTRC, in the first quarter of 2022, Russian security forces conducted at least 10 searches in the occupied Crimea. All in relation to the Crimean Tatars.
“During the reporting period, the CTRC recorded 59 detentions, 57 in relation to the Crimean Tatars. Also, 69 cases of interrogations, interviews and conversations were recorded. 59 – in relation to the Crimean Tatars. Detained Crimeans were subjected to interrogations and interviews after searches and rallies”,- Bariiev explained.
In the first quarter of 2022, 31 cases of arrests were recorded on the peninsula, 28 of which were against representatives of the indigenous people. Out of 31 cases: 6 – new arrests, 13 – extension of the term of detention, 16 – sentences, 13 – administrative arrests – 13.
The new arrests concerned cases of involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization banned in the Russian Federation and the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion. Activists received administrative arrests for posts on social networks, as well as for supporting political prisoners.
For the first quarter of 2022, 104 cases of violation of the right to a fair trial were recorded, 92 – in relation to the Crimean Tatars. During the reporting period, in addition to extending the terms of arrests, sentences and new arrests, systemic deviations of lawyers' appeals, as well as the imposition of fines, were recorded.
During the first quarter of 2022, at least 11 cases of violation of the right to healthcare access were recorded, 10 of which were against Crimean Tatars.
“These cases of violations are related to the deterioration of the health of political prisoners in places of captivity, ignoring the petitions of lawyers and the prisoners themselves, and the failure to provide medical assistance, especially in the context of the coronavirus pandemic”,- Podvorniak said.
According to the organization, in the first quarter of 2022, 3 cases of transferring of political prisoners of Crimea were recorded.
The CTRC report also contains information about inadequate conditions in pre-trial detention centers and prisons, violations of the rights of political prisoners and illegal military exercises in the occupied Crimea.
In addition, based on the realities of today, the CTRC began to record violations of people's rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
So, during the period of full-scale war in Ukraine, we recorded at least 106 cases of detentions, 16 against representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, 4 arrests of representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, at least 14 searches in the homes of representatives of the Crimean Tatar people, as well as 14 cases of murder.
In the report, we drew attention to such cases as: interrogations and torture, illegal appointment of the occupying authorities, violation of the right to peaceful assembly and identified other offenses.