U.S. Embassy concerned about detention of 120 Crimean Tatars

The embassy wrote this on its Twitter account.

"Very concerned about Russian 'authorities' targeting and detaining 120 Crimean Tatars simply for being concerned about their fellow citizens' illegal detention. We support Ukrainian police in their probe into yet another illegal deprivation of liberties," U.S. diplomats said.

Ukrainian police earlier opened criminal proceedings due to the illegal detention of 120 Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied Crimea who were traveling to Rostov-on-Don for a court hearing in the "Bilohirsk Hizb ut-Tahrir case."

Police found that on the evening of January 11, under the guise of checking documents and inspecting cars, Russian security forces illegally detained 120 members of the Crimean Tatar people to prevent them from attending a court hearing on the morning of January 12. A criminal case has been opened under the article on illegal deprivation of liberty, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

op