More than 100 Tatars detained at a Mosque in Crimea
Several dozen armed men, allegedly belonging to the Russian OMON riot police, raided a mosque in Crimea, detaining about 100 Tatars. The detainees were then loaded onto a bus and taken away towards an unknown location.
"It was reported that 30 to 50 armed men raided the mosque.. more than 100 Muslims were taken away in an unknown direction," lawyer Emile Kurbedinov wrote on Facebook.
The Tatars were later released, but ordered to report to the police station.
"We have information the captured were let off the buses. However, they were told to come to police", Kurbedinov later wrote.
Russian authorities have not commented on the incident.
Coordinator of a human rights group in Crimea, Abdureshid Dzhepparov, arrived at the scene, telling Radio Svoboda "I am at the mosque now. Earlier I talked to several Tatars. They told me the same armed men ordered for all parishioners to always have personal documents. I don't know their reasons. The reason is, Russia's inadequate".
Russia has been accused of carrying out human rights abuses against the inhabitants of the Crimea following the Peninsula's annexation in March of 2014. The Crimean Tatars in particular have been subjected to human rights violations.