Four Crimean Tatars detained on terror charges:
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Russia-backed Crimean authorities have detained four Crimean Tatars suspected of terrorism, a charge denied by Tatar activists.
Crimea's de facto prosecutor-general, Natalia Poklonskaya, said the four men were detained on May 12 on suspicion of being members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir organization.
A leader of the Crimean Tatars, Zair Smedlya, and human rights lawyer Emil Kuberdinov condemned the detainment of the four men, calling it the "continuation of repression against the Crimean Tatars" by pro-Russia authorities in the Ukrainian peninsula.
Several Crimean Tatars were arrested earlier this year for allegedly being Hizb ut-Tahrir members, which Tatar activists have called "politically motivated.”
Russia has been heavily criticized by international rights groups and Western governments for its treatment of the Crimean Tatars since Moscow annexed the peninsula in March 2014.
Russia's Supreme Court banned Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2003, designating it a "terrorist organization." The group is also banned across Central Asia.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, a London-based Sunni political organization, seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate.
This year it's the Eurovision Crimea Song Contest...
Crimean officials block access to RFE/RL's Crimea website:
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Pro-Russian authorities in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula have blocked access to RFE/RL's Crimea news website, Krym.Realii.
Web users in Ukraine and Russia-annexed Crimea complained on May 12 that the site was inaccessible.
Instead, a notice appears saying, "Access denied, as the site has been added to the list of banned sites."
"This is an aggressive act that uses the outrageous pretext of extremism to censor RFE/RL and prevent audiences in Russia and Crimea from learning the truth about the annexation," RFE/RL Editor in Chief Nenad Pejic said in a statement on May 12.
"We condemn it as an attack on RFE/RL's operations and the public's fundamental right to freely access information," he added.
The de facto prosecutor of Crimea, Natalia Poklonskaya, said on May 12 that Russia's Internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, had launched measures to block and shut down the site.
But Roskomnadzor's spokesman said on May 12 that only one page on the Krym.Realii website -- an interview with a leader of the Crimean Tatars' self-governing body, the Mejlis -- was blocked.
Crimea's Moscow-backed Supreme Court branded the Mejlis as an extremist organization and officially banned it in April.
Russia has been heavily criticized by international rights groups and Western governments for its treatment of Crimean Tatars since the annexation of the peninsula in March 2014. (w/TASS, Interfax)
