According to the US State Department, Russia intensified discrimination of minority religious groups in the occupied territories

Religious minorities suffer from discrimination in Crimea and Donbas, the US State Department report says.

According to the State Department, the Russian-controlled separatist regime forces all another from the Moscow Orthodox Church to acquire a “government religious expert estimate”. In particular, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are prohibited in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

It was noted that Russian-controlled illegal regime forces continue seizing religious minorities’ buildings and using them as military facilities in Donbas region.

“Russian occupant authorities harassed and discriminated the Jehovah’s Witnesses, members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate, the Muslim Crimean Tatars and minor religious groups,” the report says.

It was also emphasized that activists of religious communities in Crimea were subjected to torture.

As we reported earlier, Russian law enforcers held new search in the house of Crimean Tatars in Krasnivka, Simferopol region, annexed Crimea. Emirkhan Murtazaev was detained and transferred to Simferopol.

It is noted that detainee was released; he stayed in the Center of Counteraction Extremism. Emirkhan has a mental illness, schizophrenia. Due to this fact, the law enforcers could not detain him and question him without the presence of the legal representative as he cannot be accountable for his actions.

The Russian law enforcers have not commented on the reasons for search and detention.