Russian authorities threaten to prosecute Crimean Tatar activists for ‘extremism’
A leader of the Crimean Tatars, a Muslim minority group on the Moscow-controlled peninsula, said Monday that the new Russian authorities had threatened to prosecute them for “extremism”.
The leader of the ethnic minority’s assembly, known as the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, said the chief regional prosecutor had on Sunday read him an official warning to stop “extremist activities”.
The warning came after hundreds of pro-Kiev Tatars clashed with the region’s authorities at the weekend because of a ban on their spiritual leader visiting Crimea.
Chubarov said he feared that the authorities planned to prosecute him.
“I know that a criminal case will be opened against me today,” he told AFP, expressing fears that the authorities were gearing up to launch “repressions” against Tatar activists.
“There will also be attempts to declare the Mejlis an extremist organisation,” he said.
In March, Crimea’s 300,000 Tatars, who make up around 12 percent of the peninsula’s population largely boycotted a disputed referendum in which the majority voted to join Russia.
Crimea’s regional prosecutor, Natalia Poklonskaya, has warned the community that its assembly will be banned if the Tatars continue with “extremist activities,” according to the Mejlis.
Regional prosecutors declined to comment on Monday.
A Turkish-speaking Muslim group, the Tatars were accused of collaborating with Nazi Germany during World War II and deported to Central Asia under Stalin.
Nearly half of them died of starvation and disease.
They began returning to Crimea under the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and became Ukrainian citizens after the country’s independence in 1991.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/05/russian-authorities-threaten-to-prosecute-crimean-tatar-activists-for-extremism/
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