Around 400 cases of political persecution in Crimea, most of the persecuted are Crimean Tatars

Since the occupation of Crimea in 2014, 362 people have been persecuted for political reasons. Of these, 226 are Crimean Tatars, the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre reported.

According to the Centre, 171 political prisoners, 104 of whom are Crimean Tatars, are in penal colonies, another 48 persons are under restricted liberty or probation, 52 are in pre-trial detention centres, and criminal cases have been opened against 34. 57 people are already free.

Details about Russian prisoners can be found in the interactive chart ‘Victims of the occupation of Crimea’, which is regularly updated.

As was reported earlier, in Bakhchisarai, Crimea in late August, the FSB took the mother of Crimean Tatar activist and political prisoner Seiran Saliyev for interrogation and held her for about six hours.

Seiran Saliyev was arrested in 2017. In 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison for his participation in the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, which Russia considers extremist, but which operated freely in Crimea before its annexation by Russia in 2014.