Russian police in occupied Crimea raided five Crimean Tatar homes and arrested five activists on suspicion of terrorism on Aug. 17, according to non-profit organization Crimean Solidarity.
Dzhebbar Bekirov, Zavur Abdulayev, Rustem Tairov, Rustem Murasov, and Raif Fefziev now face 15 to 20 years in prison, as the Kremlin’s clampdown on Crimean Tatars and anyone who defies the regime on the peninsula continues.
“Once again, the occupying country persecutes and intimidates Crimean Tatars. Searches of Ukrainian citizens’ homes are a gross violation of international norms,” said Ludmila Denisova, the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights.
Read more: 4 Crimean Tatars sentenced to long prison terms in Russia
Raif Fevziev is a local religious leader and a Crimean Tatar activist. Dzhebbar Bekirov, Zavur Abdulayev, Rustem Tairov and Rustem Murasov are activists who regularly attended court hearings against Crimean Tatars, supported the families of political prisoners, and organized events for their villages and the wider Muslim community.
Five men are suspected of links to Hizb ut-Tahrir – an Islamic religious organization that is banned in Russia, but remains legal in Ukraine and most European countries. Lawyers and activists say Russian officials plant or fabricate evidence, use fake experts and pressure people to give fraudulent testimonies that then get classified, all to crush dissent on the peninsula.
“Today, at three o’clock in the morning, Rustem Murasov returned from Rostov-on-Don, where the Crimean Tatars were sentenced yesterday. And literally a few hours later, law enforcement officers raided the home of his elderly mother, with whom he lived,” a Crimean Tatar activist Mumine Saliyeva wrote on Facebook.
Authorities had no explanation why they reportedly didn’t allow Fefziev’s lawyer, Edem Semedliayev, to be present during the search of his house.
All five activists were transferred to Russia-controlled Crimean courts, where they await hearings.
“It soon became obvious – another onslaught, more repressions, more attacks on our activists,” Saliyeva told the Kyiv Post.
“I see this as a classic example of persecution on religious and ethnic grounds, where the charges of terrorism are used as an instrument for repression of active people who took a frontline civic position in the social and political life of their people.”
Since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, it has continuously persecuted all dissidents on the peninsula, including Crimean Tatars, an ethnic minority native to Crimea, many members of which have defied the Kremlin.
Over 120 Crimean Tatars are now jailed or otherwise targeted by Russian authorities. Most of them have been accused of being connected with Hizb ut-Tahrir. Lawyers and activists, as well as the Ukrainian government say that these cases are fabricated, lack evidence and full of procedural violations.
