38 Illegal Detentions and 36 Arrests in Occupied Crimea: Human Rights Report

In the first quarter of 2025, at least 38 illegal detentions and 36 arrests were recorded in the occupied Crimea, most of which concerned Crimean Tatars. In total, human rights activists have counted dozens of violations of the rights to a fair trial, health, and inviolability of the home.

This is evidenced by the analysis of human rights violations by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

In the first three months of 2025, at least 38 illegal detentions were recorded on the occupied peninsula, of which 12 were against members of the Crimean Tatar people. This is stated in the analysis of human rights violations published by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

Among the detainees are 13 people under the article on so-called "high treason" and another 14 for "discrediting the Russian army".

For comparison, in the first quarter of 2024, 41 detentions were recorded (18 of them were of Crimean Tatars), and in 2023, 61 and 49 cases respectively.

In the first quarter of this year, there were also documented:

• 36 arrests, including 21 of Crimean Tatars;
• 44 cases of interrogations, surveys or "preventive conversations", of which 16 were with representatives of indigenous peoples
• 13 searches, 7 of which were in the homes of Crimean Tatars;
• 70 violations of the right to a fair trial (39 in relation to Crimean Tatars);
• 17 cases of violations of the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (12 against Crimean Tatars).

The Crimean Tatar Resource Center emphasized that repressions against Crimean Tatars remain systemic, and the scale of human rights violations in occupied Crimea is consistently high.

Also, the trial of the defendants of the second Dzhankoy group in the so-called Hizb ut-Tahrir case came to an end - on April 15, the parties held a debate in Rostov-on-Don. The accusation is based on general allegations of "radical Islamic propaganda" without specific evidence of participation in terrorist activities, but the occupation authorities demand up to 17.5 years in prison for the defendants.

Meanwhile, parents in Crimea face new obstacles: children are not enrolled in schools without a stamp of Russian citizenship or a residence permit in their birth certificates, which is a consequence of the latest changes to Russian legislation aimed at controlling "migrants."

In parallel, on April 9, the PACE adopted a resolution that for the first time directly calls for compensation to be paid to Ukraine for the damage caused by Russia since 2014, including the occupation of Crimea.

Анна Бальчінос