For the first quarter of 2021, 146 arrests were recorded in the occupied Crimea, 126 of which were against Crimean Tatars. The number has increased significantly compared to 2020, then 25 arrests were recorded. 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.
A number of recorded arrests were carried out 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, it is known about the arrests at the administrative border.
Such a large number of violations in this category is also due to the fact that the invaders en masse detained activists who were sent from Crimea to the city of Rostov-on-Don to announce the verdict to the defendants in the so-called Bilohirsk Hizb ut-Tahrir case. Then it was known about 120 detentions, all – in relation to the Crimean Tatars.
It is also worth noting the detention of a native of Kryvyi Rih Vladyslav Yesipenko, who was detained after the rally dedicated to the birthday of Taras Shevchenko in Simferopol. Torture was used against him: it is known that Vladyslav was tortured with electric taser for two days.
We remind that the Crimean Tatar Resource Center presented an analysis of human rights violations in the occupied Crimea for 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.