A court in Russia's southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don has sentenced Crimean Tatar activist Ametkhan Abdulvapov to 10 1/2 years in prison on extremism charges that he has vehemently rejected.
The Crimean Solidarity human rights group said the Southern Military District Court sentenced Abdulvapov on March 15, with the first three years of his term to be spent in a prison cell and the remainder in a penal colony. The court added that after his release, Abdulvapov will remain under parole-like controls for one year.
In his last statement at the trial, Abdulvapov reiterated his innocence and asked the court to let him go back to his family.
Abdulvapov was arrested, along with four other Crimean Tatar activists, by Russian-installed police in Ukraine's Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula in February last year after their homes were searched.
Rolan Osmanov
The men were charged with being members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir religious group, which is banned in Russia but is legal in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have condemned the arrests of the Crimean Tatars in Russian-annexed Crimea, calling the arrests a "violation of Ukrainian citizens' rights" and demanding their immediate release.
Also on March 15, Russian-imposed authorities in Crimea detained Crimean Tatar activist Rolan Osmanov after searching his home. It is not clear what charges the search and the detainment were based on.
Since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Russian authorities have prosecuted dozens of Crimean Tatars on various charges that rights organizations have called trumped up.
Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-imposed authorities in Crimea who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow's takeover of the peninsula.
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.