Occupying authorities carry out 57 arrests in Crimea since beginning of year – human rights activists

This was reported by Eskender Bariiev, head of the board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center and a member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, during the presentation of the Analysis of Human Rights Violations in Occupied Crimea for the first quarter of 2026, according to Ukrinform.

"During the first quarter of 2026, we recorded 17 detentions in temporarily occupied Crimea, two of them involving Crimean Tatars. There were also six searches, two involving Crimean Tatars. There were 57 arrests, including 18 involving Crimean Tatars; 17 cases of interrogations, two involving Crimean Tatars; 23 cases of violations of the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, 20 involving Crimean Tatars; and 68 cases of violations of the right to a fair trial, 22 involving Crimean Tatars," Bariiev said.

According to him, the number of searches in Crimea this year has nearly halved, but this does not mean that the occupying authorities are conducting fewer of them.

"The number of searches has changed not because fewer are being carried out in Crimea, but because fewer people report them to us, and human rights defenders may only learn about them one or two years later," Bariiev explained.

It is also noted that in the first quarter of 2026, at least two detentions were recorded in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as at least 22 cases of arrests in those regions.

Bariiev emphasized that the Crimean Tatar Resource Center has been analyzing human rights violations in occupied Crimea every three months for many years and comparing the situation with previous periods.

"This is necessary so that we understand how we can help our political prisoners, and also to draw the attention of politicians and public figures to the problems of political prisoners who are in captivity, in pre-trial detention centers, and in colonies – so that they hear that we are speaking about them and trying to do everything possible for their release," he added.

Earlier, Ukrinform reported that since 2017, 10,700 human rights violations have been recorded in occupied Crimea.

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