You're reading: RFE/RL: Tatars detained in Russia-controlled Crimea, their homes searched

RFE/RL: Tatars detained in Russia-controlled Crimea, their homes searched

Published Jan. 25, 2018 at 8:48 pm

Armed men stand guard in front of the entrance of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars) in Simferopol on September 16, 2014. Russian police on September 16 raided the assembly of pro-Kiev Crimean Tatars, activists told AFP, days after Crimean residents overwhelmingly backed pro-Kremlin parties in polls. Authorities also raided the homes of two Tatar activists in what the leader of the Tatar governing body, the Mejlis, called the start of "direct repressions" against the peninsula's pro-Kyiv community.

Photo by AFP

Two ethnic Tatars in Russia-controlled Crimea have been detained and charged with extremist propaganda.

Both Enver Krosh, from the northern city of Dzhankoy, and Ebazer Islyamov, from the peninsula’s northwestern Nyzhnyohirskyy District, were arrested on January 25 after their homes were raided by police.