Russian police detain Crimean Tatar protesters outside supreme court - monitor

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police on Thursday detained over 40 Crimean Tatars who were protesting outside the Supreme Court in Moscow over what they said was the wrongful conviction of four compatriots on terrorism-related charges, a monitoring group said.

OVD-Info, the monitor, said in a statement that police had detained 44 Crimean Tatars who had gathered outside the court with placards while an appeal in the case went on inside.

The protest came a day after police detained seven Crimean Tatars on Moscow's Red Square after dispersing a demonstration aimed at drawing attention to alleged rights abuses on the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine five years ago.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Tom Balmforth)