Russia illegally detains ~20,000 Kremlin prisoners

Russia illegally detains ~20,000 Kremlin prisoners


According to the data of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, this is the number of civilians abducted by the Russian Federation. This estimate is based on the number of appeals from relatives of abductees received by the Commissioner.

The Media Initiative for Human Rights has identified about 100 places where abducted civilians are held.

The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea confirms 182 illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens, 60% of whom are Qırımtatarlar.

On April 27, Russian security forces searched the residences of Edem Ismailov and Bari Bariev in temporarily occupied Sudaq

Crimean Solidarity reported this.

After that, both Crimean Tatars were abducted and taken to Aqmescit (Simferopol). They were later released. Ismailov recorded a video in Crimean Tatar to inform everyone that he was fine.

Russian security forces took the Quran from Kremlin prisoner Ruslan Mesutov

Mesutov's lawyer Volodymyr Bilenko reported this to Crimean Solidarity.

The security forces took the Quran allegedly to check it for "extremism," but it has not been returned to Mesutov yet.

In addition, since November 2022, he has not been able to eat properly, as pork has been introduced into the prisoners' diet. Mesutov and other Muslim prisoners appealed to the prison administration to remove pork from the diet, but the problem has not yet been resolved.

It will be recalled that Russians illegally detained the Crimean Tatar in 2019. In 2021, a Russian court sentenced him to 18 years in prison on fabricated charges of organising terrorist activities.

Kremlin prisoner Oleh Prykhodko is left without a lawyer

His daughter Nataliia reported this to Qirim News.

Previously, he was represented by Serhii Lehostov, but he currently has no information about Prykhodko. Svidomi turned to Lehostov for a comment.

During the entire time Prykhodko was in prison, his family was never able to communicate with him. In January 2023, the prisoner's family travelled to Vladimir to meet with Prykhodko but were unable to get to him. Another case was opened against Prykhodko for allegedly insulting an FSB officer, so the meeting required permission. When the relatives received this permission, the time for visits had already passed.

It will be recalled that Russians have been illegally detaining Prykhodko since 2019. In 2020, he was transferred to a detention centre in Krasnodar; that was the last time he spoke to his family.

In 2021, a Russian court sentenced Prykhodko to 5 years in prison on fabricated charges of planning to blow up the temporary occupation administration of Saq. He is serving his sentence in the Vladimir Central Prison.

On 2 May 2, the 'supreme court' in the temporarily occupied Crimea returned Iryna Danylovych's case to the 'first instance court' for her to complete the review of the materials

Iryna's father Bronislav reported this to Crimean Solidarity.

Danylovych was detained a year ago. At the end of 2022, the 'first instance court' in temporarily occupied Kefe (Feodosiia) sentenced her to seven years in prison in a falsified case of explosives possession. The defence filed an appeal.

In order to get acquainted with the case, it is necessary to listen to audio materials, but due to Danylovych's health condition, it was difficult to do so. During her stay in the pre-trial detention centre, the woman fell ill and developed hearing problems. The security forces did not provide her with medical assistance. The illegally detained woman went on a hunger strike demanding medical care. The Russians promised to organise this but did not fulfil their promise.

In early April, the 'first instance court' transferred the case to the 'appeal court.' This was illegal, as the defendant has the right to study the materials of previous hearings beforehand.

The case of Leniye Umerova is supervised by the FSB, which has taken away all the documents from the woman

The special service is deliberately prolonging the time of Umerova's illegal detention to have time to fabricate the case.

The head of the Crimean Human Rights Group, Olha Skrypnyk, stated this.

In December 2022, Umerova left Kyiv for the occupied Crimea as the health of her father, who lives on the peninsula, deteriorated.

She crossed the Russian-Georgian border. In 2014, Umerova refused to receive a Russian passport, so she crossed the Ukrainian border. Russian security forces used this as a reason to search her, looked through her phone and computer, and then detained her.

Until March 16, she was held in a Temporary Detention Centre for Foreign Nationals. After that, she was abducted by unidentified persons and taken to Vladikavkaz. There, the woman was detained by Russian police. The court initially arrested her for 15 days. Later, this was repeated three more times.

Human rights activists believe that the FSB is falsifying charges against Umerova.

The FSB illegally detained eight people in the temporarily occupied Crimea on falsified charges of preparing "terrorist attacks"

Russian propaganda resources reported this.

They allegedly wanted to kill the leaders of the temporary occupation administration of Crimea: "the Head of the Republic" Sergey Aksyonov, "Speaker of the Parliament" Vladimir Konstantinov, and "Mayor" of temporarily occupied Yalta Yanina Pavlenko.  

Russians illegally arrested Viktor Pidvalnyi, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, Serhii Kryvoshein, Kostiantyn Yevmenenko, Ihor Zorin, Serhii Voinarovskyi, and Denys Petranov, who has dual Bulgarian-Ukrainian citizenship.

Svidomi turned to the Bulgarian Embassy in Ukraine for comment.