~Russia illegally detains 25,000 Kremlin prisoners
According to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, this is the number of civilians abducted by the Russian Federation.
The ZMINA Human Rights Centre has found that at least 21 prisoners require urgent medical care and may die unless they receive it.
During the full-scale invasion, the National Police began investigating the enforced disappearance of 8,800 people. Russian Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova claims Russia has illegally abducted over 700,000 children from Ukraine.
The Media Initiative for Human Rights has identified about one hundred places where abducted civilians are held.
The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Qırım) confirms 218 illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens, 133 of whom are Qırımtatarlar.
During the full-scale war, 3,135 Ukrainian citizens were returned to Ukraine, including 150 civilians.
Russian Supreme Court upholds Vadym Bektemirov's sentence
The Russian Supreme Court considered a cassation appeal and upheld the decisions of the courts of previous instances in the case of Vadym Bektemirov, a defendant in the "case of Crimean Muslims".
Crimean Solidarity reports.
On February 11, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don announced the verdict against Crimean Tatar political prisoners Zekiria Muratov and Vadym Bektemirov, sentencing them to 11.5 and 11 years in prison respectively for alleged membership in a terrorist organisation.
Zekiria Muratov and Vadym Bektemirov were detained during another wave of searches conducted by Russian security forces in occupied Crimea (Qırım) on July 7, 2020. During the searches, the security forces planted banned literature, which was later seized as alleged 'evidence' of the detainees' involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation.
The court extended the pre-trial restraint for six Crimean Tatar activists. They will remain in pre-trial detention centre until November
The Southern District Military Court has extended the term of detention for activists from the so-called 'fifth Bağçasaray' in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case. Seidamet Mustafaiev, Remzi Nimetulaiev, Abdulmedzhyt Seitumerov, Ametkhan Umerov, Ruslan Asanov and Eldar Yakubov will stay in the pre-trial detention centre until November 24, 2024.
Crimean Solidarity reports.
The court rejected all the motions of the defence, in particular, to return the case to the prosecutor, and did not take into account the arguments of the defence on the pre-trial restraint for the activists and left them in custody at the request of the prosecutor.
On August 24, 2023, at four in the morning, Russian FSS officers searched the homes of six Crimean Tatars - Seidamet Mustafaiev, Eldar Yakubov, Abdulmedzhyt Seitumerov, Ruslan Asanov, Ametkhan Umerov and Remzi Nimetulaiev. They had been repeatedly detained at rallies in support of other arrested Crimean Tatars.
Employees of Rostov Detention Centre No.1 abused political prisoner Ekrem Krosh
A member of the "second Canköy" group of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Ekrem Krosh, reported violence by the wardens of Detention Centre No. 1 in Rostov-on-Don.
Crimean Solidarity reports citing political prisoner's lawyer, Oleksii Ladin.
The violence was used for no reason. It was probably caused by the seizure of the detention centre by prisoners on June 16. At that time, the detention centre was searched and staff and prisoners were interrogated. Ekrem Krosh reported the violence under the protocol of the court session.
"In the future, the defence is going to give its assessment [of the incident] and take a number of procedural measures to bring the perpetrators to justice," Crimean Solidarity quotes Oleksii Ladin as saying.
He added that violence was used only against Ekrem Krosh. Other participants in the case were not injured. All of them reported feeling "more or less well".
Berdiansk residents illegally tried in Rostov for alleged 'terrorism' do not have full access to lawyers
The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don continued to consider the case of the murder of the so-called 'deputy head of the traffic police' in occupied Berdiansk, Aleksandr Kolesnikov, and the attempted murder of the 'military commandant', Artem Bardin, and the deputy head of the occupation administration, Pavel Ishchuk. The defendants in this case are Ukrainians Damian Omelianenko, Artur Shashenko and Oleksii Makarenko, who do not have a proper opportunity to communicate with their lawyers.
The Memorial Society reports.
The court in Rostov allegedly received a statement from Damian Omelianenko and Artur Shashenko requesting to participate in the trial via video conferencing.
During a regular hearing on May 22, 2024, Damian's lawyer expressed doubts that the applications had been written by his client personally. The defence lawyers of the other defendants stated that it was very difficult to organise a full-fledged video conference during the hearings.
The defendants are charged under particularly serious articles that provide for punishment up to life imprisonment. All obstacles to communication between the lawyer and the defendant must be removed, human rights activists explain.
Despite the defence's claims that remote hearings were unacceptable, the panel of judges organised a video conference with the defendants during the trial. This means that the Ukrainians were not brought to the courtroom.
The Russian panel of judges also considered Omelianenko's request to be granted prisoner-of-war status, to stop the criminal prosecution and to be transferred to a special military detention facility. This motion was also rejected.
At the request of the prosecution, the defendants Makarenko, Omelianenko and Shashenko's detention was extended for another three months.
