According to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, over the course of the first six months of 2019, there were registered ninety-seven cases of interrogations and “conversation”, fifty-nine of which were conducted in relation to the Crimean Tatars. The number of such cases dropped from sixty-one to thirty-six in the second quarter of this year compared to the first one. However, in contrast to the first six months of 2018, the number of interrogations and “conversations” increased from eighty-nine to ninety-seven.
Almost all interrogations took place after the unlawful detention. In rare cases, people were summoned by subpoena, or sometimes security forces personally visit their homes to conduct such “conversations”. Most such cases took place in March and June – forty and twenty respectively – the same months, when most cases of searches occurred.
The most targeted categories of people include Ukrainian war prisoners, Crimeans suspected in participation in “Hizb-ut-Tahrir”, “Jehovah Witnesses” that are bannedl in Russia, Crimean Tatars suspected of participation in Noman Çelebicihan battalion, as well as Crimean Tatar women, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar activists. Some “interrogations” were conducted on the administrative-territorial line with the occupied Crimea.
Over the course of the first six months of 2019, in the occupied Crimea, there were conducted seventy-three searches, fifty-five of which took place in the Crimean Tatars households. Besides, among sixty-nine cases of detention that we are aware of, fifty-seven targeted the representatives of the Crimean Tatar people.