During the occupation of Crimea, 117 people were persecuted in “Hizb ut-Tahrir cases” - human rights activists

This was reported on Facebook by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (CTRC), according to Ukrinform.

“During the entire period of occupation, 117 people were persecuted for allegedly participating in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization,” the statement reads.

Since 2014, the beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea, the Russian Federation has begun an active fight against “terrorism” and “extremism”. In reality, though, this is a tool to suppress the non-violent resistance of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people and pro-Ukrainian activists who opposed the occupation of their homeland.

“They (the persecuted - ed.) are Muslims, and it is very convenient to persecute them for this case, allegedly for some kind of Islamic terrorism. If you look at history, there has never been any terrorism in Crimea, let alone Islamic terrorism. There were conflicts at the interethnic and interfaith level in the 1990s when Crimean Tatars returned, but those were resolved. In most cases, the population in Crimea did not have any issues on this basis,” said Lyudmyla Korotkikh, a lawyer of the CTRC.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a political Islamic organization banned in Russia since 2003. On the territory of Ukraine and most countries, the organization operates without restrictions at the level of national legislation.

As Ukrinform reported previously, a year ago, 106 Ukrainian citizens became victims of political persecution in the “Hizb ut-Tahrir cases” in the temporarily occupied Crimea.