On 15 March 2023, operatives of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) conducted a rough search in Urozhayne, a village in Crimea, at the home of Crimean Tatar citizen journalist Rolan Osmanov, who was then arrested and taken to the FSB headquarters in Simferopol, the capital of Russian-annexed Crimea. Osmanov was released by the next day, without authorities communicating on any charges against him. According to his wife, Emine Osmanova, FSB operatives conducted the search in a rough manner, throwing furniture upside down, including old family belongings. They reportedly also threw Osmanov on the floor to handcuff him. Osmanova added that her mother-in-law fainted during the search, and that the FSB operatives refused to help, telling her to call an ambulance herself.
Edem Semedlyayev, a lawyer from the Crimean Human Rights Group, a regional non-governmental organization, said that he was not allowed to see Osmanov at the FSB headquarters in Simferopol, despite telling authorities that he arrived to represent the citizen journalist’s interests. According to the Crimean Human Rights Group, the search and arrest were linked to an ongoing FSB investigation into the damaging of rail tracks in Crimea’s Bakhchisaray district on 23 February, which authorities suspect pro-Ukrainian groups of organizing.