On Thursday, July 13, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center presented an analysis of human rights violations in the occupied Crimea for the first half of 2023. According to the organization, during the reporting period, Russian security forces conducted 37 searches, 101 detentions, and 104 interrogations, interviews, and conversations. The total number of arrests for the first half of 2023 is 140. Most of the violations by the occupiers fall on representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. This practice has become systemic in the peninsula.
The press conference was attended by Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Head of the Department for Legal Affairs and Foreign Affairs of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Eskender Bariev, Communications Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center Tetiana Podvorniak, CTRC lawyer Volodymyr Liashenko, CTRC expert Borys Babin.
In the first half of 2023, 37 searches were recorded, 29 in the homes of Crimean Tatars. For the same period in 2022, 15 searches were recorded, and in 2021 – 32.
– In January, Asanov Ibraim, Krosh Ekrem, Asanov Aider, Seydametov Refat, Abdurazakov Osman, Zekiriaiev Leman, Mambetov Khalil.
– In February, twice with Ilver Ametov, Dmytro Demchuk, Halyna Balaban, the parents of Abdulaziz Dzhemilev.
– In March, Edem Murtazaiev, Memet Ashurov, Asan Abduramanov, Akhtem Ismailov, Lenur Urkumet, Lemmar Yunusov, Rolan Osmanov, Mustafa Mustafaiev, Shevket Erhashev.
– In April, Fazil Emiruseinov, Abdureshyt Dzhepparov, Edem Ismailov and Bari Bariiev.
– In May, with seven citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Bulgaria in the Crimea, who allegedly planned assassination attempts against Aksenov, Konstantinov and Pavlenko, with Ridvan Rustemov.
– In June, with Jafer and Alim Aliustaiev, Bekir Dervishev and Diliaver Musaiev.
“In the first half of 2023, 101 detentions were recorded, 66 against Crimean Tatars. A number of recorded arrests were made after the searches. Residents of Crimea were detained on suspicion of involvement in the organizations banned in the Russian Federation, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Jehovah’s Witnesses, for evading conscription into the armed forces of the Russian Federation, for justifying terrorism in social networks, assisting terrorism, for government treason, said Eskender Bariiev.
In the first half of 2023, 140 arrests were recorded, of which 93 were against representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.
“Out of 140 cases, 41 are new arrests, 27 are sentences, 1 is a posthumous sentence, 43 are administrative arrests, 28 are extensions of detention”,- Tetiana Podvorniak explained.
The speakers paid special attention to the fact that two political prisoners, Dzhemil Gafarov and Kostiantyn Shyrynh, died due to the failure to provide proper medical care in Russian places of detention.
The report of the CTRC, which is available on the website of the organization, also contains information about interrogations, violations of environmental standards on the peninsula, about inadequate conditions in pre-trial detention centers and prisons, about 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 human rights violations in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
So, as Tetiana Podvorniak, Communications Manager of the CTRC, noted, in the first half of 2023, we recorded at least 34 cases of detention, 12 arrests of representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, at least 13 searches, as well as 265 cases of murders.
The report also drew attention to such cases as: torture and threats, illegal appointment of the occupation authorities, deportation of children and propaganda, destruction of the ecosystem and highlighted other offenses.
Expert of the CTRC Borys Babin spoke in more detail about the case of the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion and the activities of the organization in this direction.
“During a full-scale aggression and a year and a half of a full-scale war, the occupiers are actively looking for people who are accused of allegedly participating in illegal armed groups. First of all, the Asker Public Formation for the Protection of Public Order and / or the State Border is singled out here”,- he noted.
Volodymyr Liashenko noted in his speech that the CTRC not only records cases of violations of rights in Crimea, but the organization’s experts also use this information to help specific people, and this is precisely what the Crimean Tatar Resource Center’s work is based on.
Volodymyr also spoke about the difficulties that political prisoners face after returning to Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, we are forced to state that in fact, during the year of the law on social protection of persons deprived of their liberty as a result of Russian aggression, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine has not yet made and approved the procedure for the medical rehabilitation of these people”,- he said.
Photo: CTRC, UCMC