For the first quarter of 2021, 23 cases of interrogations, interviews and conversations were recorded in the occupied Crimea, 9 of which were against representatives of the Crimean Tatar people. Compared to previous years, the number of interrogations has decreased over the same period. This is stated in the analysis of human rights violations in Crimea for the first quarter of 2021 by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.
Crimeans detained after the searches were interrogated and questioned on suspicion of involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir and Jehovah's Witnesses organizations banned in the Russian Federation, on suspicion of allegedly justifying terrorism in social networks. One interrogation was conducted by Russian security officials at the administrative border with the occupied Crimea. In addition, during the reporting period, there were multiple cases of interrogations of relatives of political prisoners, activists who held single pickets.
We remind that the Crimean Tatar Resource Center presented an analysis of human rights violations in the occupied Crimea over 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.