(Tamara Brattseva, a victim of repression in Crimea. PHOTO: ctrcenter.org)
In the annexed Crimea, the occupation authorities sentenced 70-year-old believer Tamara Bratseva to a suspended sentence for her participation in the Jehovah's Witnesses community. The woman was accused of extremism.
This was reported by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.
On October 17, the so-called judge of the Razdolnensky District Court Maria Bedritskaya announced the verdict against Tamara Brattseva, a resident of the village of Ak-Sheikh, accusing her of "organizing the activities of an extremist organization". The supporter of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious movement was sentenced to six years and three months of suspended sentence.
The occupation prosecutor 's office demanded a real prison sentence of almost six and a half years. The woman denied the charges, emphasizing that her faith had nothing to do with extremism:"If I were involved in extremism, I could no longer be a Jehovah's Witness."
Brattseva noted that she had been a member of this community long before its official registration in Rozdolne and continues to adhere to her religious beliefs despite the pressure of the occupiers.
During the so-called trial, her husband, with whom they had lived together for more than 50 years, was involved in an accident on the way to get medicine. In the hospital, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and hematoma, and the woman herself had to take blood pressure medication right during the hearings.
Also in Crimea, Russian security forces conducted searches in Bakhchisarai, surrounding villages and Orlivka near Sevastopol, and detained four women. They were accused of having ties to the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization banned in Russia and threatened to take away their children, which human rights activists consider to be politically motivated repressions against Crimean Tatars.
Currently, the occupiers have introduced the so-called "eviction regime", which allows for the deprivation of citizenship - another way of political pressure on Crimean Tatars and residents of the occupied territories. This practice may provoke a new wave of deportations to Central Asian countries.
Анна Бальчінос