Dozens have been detained, including the deputy speaker of the local Majlis
The United States has strongly condemned the arrest by Russian authorities of Crimean Tatar Deputy Speaker Nariman Dzhelyalov and at least 45 other compatriots over the weekend, Reuters reported.
According to the State Department, Dzhelyalov and at least 45 other Crimean Tatars have been arrested by Russian occupation authorities in Crimea.
“We call on the Russian occupation authorities to release them immediately,” the statement said, describing their arrest “as the latest incident in a long series of politically motivated operations, arrests and punitive measures against the Majlis and its leaders.”
Russia’s Interfax news agency earlier quoted an “unnamed source” as saying that Dzhelyalov and four other Crimean residents had been detained in connection with a damaged gas pipeline in the village of Perevalnoye on the road from Simferopol to Yalta.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter on Saturday that Russia had “escalated terror in occupied Crimea” by detaining five people, including Dzhelyalov.
On Sunday (September 5th), Lyudmila Denisova, the human rights commissioner of the Ukrainian parliament, said more than 50 Crimean Tatars had been detained following their protest in Simferopol against “illegal searches and arrests” by Russian internal intelligence forces.
Some of them were rudely taken to police buses, Denisova wrote in the Telegram news app. She said five activists of the Muslim minority in Crimea had previously been arrested by Russian security services.
Denisova called on the international community to put more pressure on Russia to end repression of the traditional population of the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
The UN has recently accused Russian authorities of arbitrary arrests and attacks on members of the Crimean Tatar community.
Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
–
