Nine years after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, persecution of a predominantly Muslim minority in the region by Moscow has intensified because it remains loyal to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Crimean Tatars, a Sunni Muslim group that ruled the peninsula from the 15th to the 18th centuries, have never recognized Russia's annexation, much like the rest of the international community. Human rights groups have been raising alarms about reprisals against the Tatar community. Ukraine considers about 200 Tatars to be political prisoners in Crimea, NBC News reported.
One of the most high-profile prisoners is Nariman Dzelyal, deputy chairman of the Tatars' self-governing assembly — the Mejlis — which was banned by Moscow in Crimea after the annexation in 2014. Dzelyal was arrested in September 2021 on suspicion of involvement in an attack on a gas pipeline. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison in September 2022 on a sabotage charge that he and his supporters call politically motivated.
Human Rights Watch called the charges against Dzhelyal "trumped up" and was one of several rights groups to criticize his treatment along with that of several other Tatar activists who remained loyal to Kyiv, NBC News reported.
According to the U.S. mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, "the Crimean Tatar people have faced the worst of Russia's repression."
"They have endured an endless stream of raids on mosques, homes, and workplaces," the mission said in a March 16 news release. "Crimean Tatar community leaders have been banished from the peninsula, their media outlets shuttered, and their peaceful self-governing bodies criminalized as 'extremist organizations.'"
The mission noted the case of Dzhemil Gafarov, 60, a Crimean Tatar held by Russia since March 2019 on "false politically motivated charges." Dzhemil was sentenced in February to 13 years in prison but he died in custody shortly after his sentencing, the mission said, when guards reportedly denied him medical treatment.
In February, a court in southern Russia sentenced two Tatars to 11 years in prison on charges of participating in a banned Islamic group, The Moscow Times reported. The military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced scholar Vadim Bektemirov to 11 years in a maximum-security penal colony and Zekirya Muratov to 11.5 years.
They were accused of taking part in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a pan-Islamist group banned in Russia as "terrorist" but legal in Ukraine.
On July 15, Amnesty International said three lawyers — Lilya Gemedzhi, Rustem Kyamilev, and Nazim Sheikhmambetov — were disbarred in retaliation for their work defending Crimean Tatar activists against politically motivated charges.
"Unless this decision is reversed, they will not be able to represent clients in criminal proceedings and in court, nor take new qualification exams for a year," Amnesty International said in a news release. "This sends a warning to other lawyers in Crimea, at the time when politically motivated reprisals against activists are on the rise."
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