Four Crimean Tatars have been detained after their homes were searched in Ukraine's Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
The Crimean Solidarity public group told RFE/RL on February 9 that the searches were conducted at the homes of Ansar Osmanov, Ernest Seytosmanov, Marlen Mustafayev, and Ametkhan Abdulvapov, who were later detained and taken away by officers of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).
The detained men's relatives said that no reason was given for the searches or the detention of the four men.
Since Russia seized Crimea in 2014, dozens of Crimean Tatars have been prosecuted for allegedly belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic group that is banned in Russia but not in Ukraine.
Moscow's takeover of the peninsula was vocally opposed by many Crimean Tatars, who are a sizable minority in the region.
Exiled from their homeland to Central Asia under the dictatorship of Josef Stalin during World War II, many Crimean Tatars are very wary of Russia and Moscow's rule.
Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-imposed authorities in Crimea, who target members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow's takeover.
Russia took control of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 after sending in troops, seizing key facilities, and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by at least 100 countries.
Moscow also backs separatists in a war against government forces that has killed more than 13,200 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.