The mother of a jailed Crimean Tatar man says she has started a hunger strike, calling on the Russian authorities to release her son, who was convicted of terrorism charges.

Raime Primova told RFE/RL that she started the hunger strike on June 20 after sending a request to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) to demand her son, Nuri Primov, be freed.

Primova said she was only drinking water and a doctor was monitoring her health.

Primov was arrested in Russian-controlled Crimea in 2016 and later convicted of being a member of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamist group.

Primov, who denied the charge, is serving a five-year sentence in a penal colony in the Russian republic of Mari El.

Moscow's takeover of Crimea in March 2014 was vocally opposed by many members of the Crimea Tatar population, who make up a sizable minority on the peninsula.

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they call a campaign of repression targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatars and others who opposed Moscow's seizure of the peninsula.