New repressions against Crimean Tatar journalists were reported by the Crimean Solidarity public association on its Facebook page, citing lawyer Edem Semedlyayev. 

At 6 a.m., Russian security forces broke into the houses of the “Qırım” newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Bekir Mamutov, and its founder, Seyran Ibragimov. After the searches of private homes, the occupants examined the newspaper's editorial office, and the journalists were taken to the building of one of the Russian Interior Ministry's units, the Center for Countering Extremism. The searches were carried out without a lawyer - Emir Semedlyayev was not allowed to see his clients.

A few hours later, Mamutov and Ibragimov were released. They are charged with offenses under two administrative articles of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation: Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 (public actions aimed at discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation) and Part 9 of Article 13.15 (abuse of freedom of mass information). Under the latter article, Bekir Mamutov was already punished in 2021, when the newspaper published a report by the UN Secretary General, which mentioned the Mejlis. The occupiers declared the governing body of the Crimean Tatars an extremist organization and banned it.

After today's detention, all personal electronic devices were confiscated from the journalists, so it is impossible to contact them. But we talked to Bekir Mamutov's wife. According to Khatidze Mamutova, the security forces sent a request to Roskomnadzor to check the publications of the newspaper “Qırım” for signs of the crime of “treason against the Motherland”.

“Qırım” is the first newspaper that Crimean Tatars started publishing after returning to their homeland. It has existed since 1989 and is published in the Crimean Tatar language.