US Department of State has released a report on human rights abuses in occupied Crimea

These include disappearance, torture and discrimination.

The US Department of State has released a human rights report for 2019. It stresses that the Russian Federation continues to violate human rights in the annexed Crimea. The document was released on the State Department website on Wednesday, March 11.

It is reported that: disappearance; torture, including punishable psychiatric imprisonment; ill-treatment of prisoners, such as solicitation of confessions; severe prison conditions and transportation of prisoners to Russia; selective arrest and detention; political imprisonment; widespread and arbitrary interference with privacy; violation of freedom of expression, the press and the Internet, including violence against journalists and blocking of websites; the cruel and pervasive suppression of freedom of assembly and religion; severe restrictions on freedom of association, including the ban on the Majlis; significant restrictions on freedom of movement; restrictions on political participation; systemic corruption; violence and systematic discrimination against Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians.

We will remind that on March 11 searches in at least seven Crimean Tatars took place in Bakhchisarai . The Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea commenced criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Art. 162 of the Criminal Code. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expressed strong protest.

At present, there are reports of at least four Ukrainians being illegally detained – Amet Suleimanov, Seitumer Seitumerov, Osman Seitumerov and Rustem Seitmetmetov.