FSB Holds Crimean Tatar Activist For Questioning, Wife Fears Terror Charge

KHOLMIVKA, Ukraine -- Crimean Tatar activist Nariman Memediminov has been taken in for questioning by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers and may face charges of propagating terrorism, his wife says.

Lemara Memediminova told RFE/RL that their house in the village of Kholmivka in the southern Bakhchysaray district was searched on March 22.

"They took him to Simferopol to the Russian FSB headquarters for questioning and it will be known later if they let him go or not. They have launched a probe against him for his video he placed on YouTube as a blogger," Memediminova said.

She expressed concern that Memediminov may be charged with calling for terrorist activities via the Internet.

Memediminova also said that the FSB officers were rude and confiscated a tablet, two mobile phones, and several books from their house.

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they call a campaign of oppression targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority and others who opposed Moscow's seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula in March 2014.

The majority of Crimean Tatars opposed the Russian takeover of their historical homeland.

In March 2017, the European Parliament called on Russia to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens who it said were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.