Since the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine, more people have been arrested on charges of participation in the Crimean Tatar battalion named after Noman Chelebidzhikhan than in the last eight years. This was announced by the analyst of the human rights organization "Crimea SOS" Yevgeny Yaroshenko.

According to him, during the 108 days of the war in the annexed Crimea, seven people were arrested, while eight years earlier, six people were prosecuted on similar charges.

Four out of seven people were abducted in the Kherson region and forcibly taken to the annexed Crimea. These are Arsen Ibraimov, Aider Umerov, Ruslan Abdurakhmanov and Artur Memetshaev. Memetshaev was the last to be detained, now he is in the Simferopol pre-trial detention center.

The Noman Chelebidzhikhan Battalion is a volunteer armed formation of Ukraine, created in early 2016 with the assistance of the Crimean Tatar politician Lenur Islyamov. From the moment of its creation, the battalion took an active part in the blockade of the Crimea. In 2016, the FSB opened a criminal case against the battalion on the creation of an illegal armed group in Crimea (Part 1, Article 208 of the Criminal Code). Several of its participants received real terms of six to ten years.

On June 1, 2022, the Supreme Court of Russia recognized the Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion named after Noman Chelebidzhikhan as a terrorist organization.

Source: THE INSIDER