Near Simferopol Crimean Tatar Izetov was taken to interrogation after his house was searched

In the annexed Crimea, law enforcers conducted a search in the house of Crimean Tatar Riza Izetov, afterwards he was taken to the Center for Combating Extremism for questioning. This happened in the village Strohonivka on the eastern outskirts of Simferopol district.

As reported by journalist Anton Naumlyuk on his Facebook page.

According to him, the search lasted from 6:15 am to 9 am on May 11.

“Riza was taken away, his lawyer will follow him”, – said Naumlyuk.

“According to the neighbors, the search began at around 7 am. After the search, they brought Riza out, put him in the car and taken away. He was not handcuffed. And immediately they lifted the cordon, since they were blocking all entrances to the house”, – said Naumlyuk.

“Things weren’t scattered in the house. Two old obviously non-working phones were lying on the table. Books were taken out of the closet and were neatly stacked. Computer table was empty. There were no other signs of the search”, – he added.

This is the fourth “meeting” of law enforcers with Izetov. He was detained on June 4, 2015, but shortly after he was released. On February 21, 2017, he was detained and arrested for 5 days for coming to film the search in Marlen Mustafayev’s house in Kamianka. And on March 30 he was detained for coming to support activist Remzi Bekirov, he was interrogated and later released.

Lawyer Emil Kurbedinov noted that the repressions against Crimean Tatar social activists, Crimean Muslims and representatives of the indigenous people of Crimea are continuing.

“He (Izetov – ed.) is simply not afraid to say what he thinks, not afraid to talk about violation of rights, has a principled political stance and comes to his neighbor, compatriot when he’s in trouble! Riza Izetov has recently served an administrative sentence for a peaceful assembly!”, – he wrote.

Later Anton Naumlyuk wrote that Riza Izetov was released. The search and the interrogation were carried out in relation to the disappearance of Memetov, who is suspected of involvement in illegal gangs, in 2016. Izetov refused to answer investigator’s questions and the lawyer was not allowed to visit him. During the search they seized his tablet and phone, which they promised to return after the examination.