Dozens rally on Red Square to stop repressions in Crimea

MOSCOW, July 10 (AP): More than two dozen people have rallied on Red Square in a rare public protest against the crackdown on Tatars in Russian-occupied Crimea.

The protesters, mostly elderly men, on Wednesday carried posters saying "Our children are not terrorists" and "Stop ethnic and religious repressions in Crimea."

Rights group OVD-Info said seven people have been detained.

Tatars, an indigenous Muslim people in the Crimean peninsula, were arguably the only organized force to oppose Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Several Crimean leaders were convicted of inciting riots before the annexation. Dozens of Tatars have put on trial on charges of extremism for their alleged activities in a Muslim group that is banned in Russia.

Several international and Russian rights groups consider the jailed Crimean Tatars prisoners of conscience.