~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.

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, 134 of whom are Qırımtatarlar.

The Crimean Tatar Refat Alimov, a member of the Yalta group Hizb ut-Tahrir, has been released from Russian jail. Edem Semedlyayev, a lawyer who travelled to Salavat in the Republic of Bashkortostan to meet Alimov, informed the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. He returned to Crimea (Qırım) on April 18.

Refat Alimov was detained in 2016 on charges of alleged "involvement in terrorist activities". In November 2019, a court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced the Crimean Tatar to eight years in a strict regime colony with a one-year restriction on freedom.

The Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir is recognised as a terrorist organisation in Russia and Ukraine's occupied territories. It operates freely in most countries of the world, including Ukraine.

The Kyiv district "court" in Simferopol (Aqmescit) has extended the pre-trial detention of Seydamet Mustafayev, Remzi Nemetullayev, Abdulmejit Seytumerov, Ametkhan Umerov, Ruslan Asanov and Eldar Yakubov in the pre-trial detention centre until July 22, 2024. Lawyer Emil Kurbedinov reported this, according to the NGO Crimean Solidarity.

On August 24 (when Ukraine celebrates its Independence Day — ed.), at four in the morning, FSB officers broke into the homes of six Crimean Tatars: five men are civil activists, and Abdulmezhit is the brother of two political prisoners from Bakhchysarai, Osman and Seytumer Seytumerov, who were arrested in March 2020 and sentenced to 17 and 14 years in prison.

All the prisoners were charged with allegedly "organising the activities of a terrorist organisation and participating in the activities of a terrorist organisation". This refers to the Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation, which is banned in Russia.

Ruslan Suleymanov, a civilian journalist sentenced to 14 years in prison, has been transferred from Novocherkassk to Verkhneuralsk prison in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. He announced in a letter to his family sent on April 14, Crimean Solidarity reports.

Suleymanov's transfer took 26 days. He told his family that he was not complaining about his health but that he was in a "quarantine" cell.

It will be recalled that on March 27, 2019, the most massive searches of Crimean Tatars' homes took place simultaneously in the Kamenka and Strohonivka districts of Simferopol (Aqmescit). Almost all of those detained were citizen journalists or civic activists.

On November 24, 2022,  the Military Court of the Southern District of the Russian Federation found Ruslan Suleymanov guilty of terrorist activities and an attempt to seize power. He was sentenced to 14 years in a strict regime colony. 

The Russian occupation authorities have searched the homes of Crimean Tatars Chebiev Abdullah and Ruslan Mustafayev, who died almost six months ago, the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre reports. 

"Of course, they found nothing on anyone. It was just another step to intimidate the Crimean Tatars," the Centre writes.

In the first quarter of 2024, the CTRC recorded 33 searches in the temporarily occupied Crimea, 28 of them against Crimean Tatars.

Security forces have detained a 66-year-old resident of the temporarily occupied Novooleksiivka on suspicion of involvement in the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion. The Crimean Human Rights Group reports this. 

The name and surname of the detainee have not been disclosed. According to the Russians, the detainee allegedly "voluntarily joined the battalion in 2015 and was involved in running an auxiliary farm, delivering food to the place of deployment of the formation members and actively participating in the organisation's meetings".

The Noman Çelebicihan Volunteer Battalion was formed by participants in the Civil Blockade of Crimea demonstration, who called for a halt to trade with Crimea and blocked checkpoints. On June 1, 2022, the Russian Supreme Court recognised the Battalion as a terrorist organisation and banned its activities in Russia and the temporarily occupied territories.

It will be recalled that in November 2023, the so-called court in occupied Henichesk sentenced Eldar Kestan from the Kherson region to three and a half years in prison for alleged involvement in the Crimean Tatar battalion named after Noman Çelebicihan.

Amet Suleymanov, a political prisoner and civilian journalist from Bakhchysarai (Bağçasaray), is deteriorating in prison in Vladimir, Russia. Lilya Lyumanova, his wife, who has been visiting her husband, told Crimean Solidarity.

Amet Suleymanov suffers from chronic heart, lung and joint diseases. Lilya noted that in prison, her husband lost a lot of weight, developed shortness of breath and lung pain, and his legs began to swell. The Crimean Tatar also reported that he began to experience pain in his eyes.

Suleymanov was sentenced to 12 years in a strict regime colony for alleged involvement in the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which Russia has recognised as a terrorist organisation and banned. After the searches and subsequent detention on March 11, 2020, and until April 5, 2023, Suleymanov was placed under house arrest due to a severe heart condition.

In 2023, the Southern District Military Court of Rostov-on-Don sent the Crimean Tatar to a strict regime colony despite the defence's statements about the Crimean Tatar's health.