Occupiers in Crimea held mass raids as part of Hizb ut-Tahrir case

The operatives of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and Rosgvardiya raided at least 25 houses of the Crimean Tatars in the annexed Crimea on March 27 as part of criminal cases against several Crimean residents suspected of participating in the activities of the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir in Russia.

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine condemned the actions of the occupiers in Crimea, stressing that large-scale raids in the occupied Crimea could be the beginning of a new wave of prosecutions of Crimean Tatars, Zik reported citing the official comment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

“The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine expresses its strong protest in connection with illegal large-scale raids of houses and detentions of representatives of the Crimean Tatar people that took place today in Simferopol and Belogorsky districts of Crimea, temporarily occupied by Russia. This is exactly the case – a new wave of repressions – Russia is responding to the fifth anniversary of the adoption of UN General Assembly resolution 68/262 “Territorial integrity of Ukraine,” reads the commentary.

The foreign ministry stressed that the large-scale nature of the persecution testified to Russia's willingness to promote the practice of repression and intimidation of Ukrainian citizens living in temporarily occupied territories.

“We are alarmed by the reports that during the searches in the Kamianka district of Simferopol, Russian occupiers have resorted to beating local inhabitants who were nearby,” the Ministry stated.

Of particular concern to Ukrainian diplomats is that the Russian occupation authorities have again chosen as the pretext for their punitive actions the so-called case of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which was already used to fabricate cases against Crimean Tatar activists, and their subsequent convictions.

“For this reason, we do not rule out that today's events may be the beginning of a new wave of prosecutions of Crimean Tatars and call on the international community to respond immediately to the actions of the Russian occupation authorities,” the comment says.

The Ministry is convinced that the political, economic and sanction pressure on the aggressor state should be intensified in order to deter Russia from violating human rights in the temporarily occupied Crimea; make it release illegally detained citizens of Ukraine and accelerate the de-occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stresses that the Russian Federation must implement in full the resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations “Territorial integrity of Ukraine” of March 27, 2014, “Status of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol (Ukraine)” dated December 19, 2016, 19 December 2017 and December 22, 2018, as well as the order of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations on preventive measures in the context of Ukraine's action against the Russian Federation regarding the application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.