~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 191 illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens, 123 of whom are Qırımtatarlar.

During the full-scale war, 2,576 Ukrainian citizens were returned to Ukraine, including 144 civilians.

Russians have imprisoned Crimean Tatar Dliaver Salimov after he refused to publicly apologise for the Telegram channel of pro-Russian blogger Alexander Talipov, who collaborates with the FSS.

The Crimean Human Rights Group reports. 

On August 11, 2023, in the temporarily occupied city of Staryi Krym (Eski Qırım), Crimean Tatar Dliaver Salimov, in a conversation with another Crimean resident, expressed his indignation at the fact that his interlocutor was wearing a cap with the symbol "Z" on it. Salimov verbally threatened his opponent and, using foul language, demanded that he take off the cap with the symbols of the Russian army.

This incident was recorded on video and subsequently published on the Krymsky Smersh and ТалипоV Online telegram channels controlled by the Russian security forces.

The footage subtitles included Salimov's name and a threat of death. After the publication, on August 16, 2023, an administrative case of disorderly conduct was opened against Salimov. On the same day, the so-called "magistrate court" of Simferopol (Aqmescit) fined Salimov 4,000 rubles.

In addition, on August 16, 2023, the illegal "judge" of the Kirovsky District Court of Simferopol, Anastasiia Bodenko, issued a decision to arrest Salimov for 14 days for alleged disorderly conduct. 

At the same time, representatives of the Russian law enforcement agencies verbally demanded several times that Salimov record a public apology for his actions, which was to be published on the Krymsky Smersh and ТалипоV Online telegram channels. However, Salimov refused, and after that, on August 23, 2023, a criminal case was opened against him for allegedly making a death threat. 

The security forces again offered Salimov to record a public apology, which he again refused. After that, the charges against him were aggravated, and he was imprisoned.

On November 1, 2023, his actions were reclassified, and on November 2, 2023, he was deprived of his liberty and placed in Detention Centre No. 1 in Simferopol.

On November 2, 2023, the 'judge' of the illegal 'Kirovsky District Court' of Simferopol, Anastasiia Bodenko, ruled that Salimov be held in custody for 52 days until December 23, 2023.

On November 14, 2023, the 'judge' of the 'Supreme Court' Anatolii Osochenko upheld this decision.

The penalty under the article under which Salimov is being prosecuted provides for up to five years in prison.

Russian "investigative bodies" have completed an "investigation" against a 52-year-old woman accused of allegedly preparing a 'terrorist act' in the temporarily occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia region.

This was reported in the Telegram channel. 

The Russians claim that Ukrainian special services recruited the woman. She was supposed to allegedly commit a 'terrorist act' in the temporarily occupied Vasylkiv district of Zaporizhzhia. 

The woman allegedly received an improvised explosive device from a Ukrainian intelligence officer in September last year. The Russians claim that the "suspect" has fully admitted her guilt and has been "taken into custody".

The political prisoner, civilian journalist Vilen Temerianov's eyesight has deteriorated sharply due to the conditions in the pre-trial detention centre. 

His wife, Elmaz Gaziieva, reported this, Crimean Solidarity writes.

Due to the constant strain of trying to see objects, his eyes hurt. Temerianov has to use glasses, which his relatives picked up and gave him. The civilian journalist also suffers from periodic stomach pains, which he attributes to his diet and sedentary lifestyle in the detention centre. In addition, Temerianov told his relatives that he needed urgent help from a dentist. 

On August 11, 2022, Russian FSS officers searched the house of Temerianov, a Crimean Solidarity and Grani.Ru. correspondent, in the village of Vilne, Dzhankoy (Canköy) district, Crimea (Qırım). He was detained on charges of participating in 'terrorist activities'.

Political prisoners Osman Arifmemetov, Ruslan Suleimanov, Rustem Sheikhaliiev, Yashar Muiedinov and Enver Ametov said they did not know the witness whose testimony formed the basis of their criminal case.

Lawyer Lilia Hemedzhi reported this to the Crimean Solidarity.

During the trial, which took place on December 22, the data of the prosecution witness was declassified. All the activists accused in the case stated that they had never communicated with this person. According to the political prisoners' defence, the secret witness's testimony was taken under pressure.

The defence lawyers demanded that the case be returned for examination, but the court rejected this and proceeded to the debate. The defendants tried to claim that the judicial panel was biased against them, but the court also interrupted their speeches.

Lawyer Refat Yunus pointed out in the debate that there was no evidence in the case file that Crimean Tatar activists Osman Arifmemetov, Ruslan Suleymanov, Rustem Sheikhaliev, Yashar Muedinov and Enver Ametov had been involved in terrorist activities.

He also added that in the court of first instance, the defendants were unlawfully denied the right to speak their native language and were not provided with an interpreter.

In addition, the activists complained to their lawyers that they were not provided medical care in the pre-trial detention centre. 

It will be recalled that on March 27, 2019, the most massive searches of Crimean Tatars' homes took place simultaneously in the Kamianka and Strohanivka neighbourhoods of Simferopol (Aqmescit). Due to the vast scope of evidence, law enforcement officers unprecedentedly divided the criminal case of 25 participants into five groups of defendants. Almost all of the detainees were citizen journalists or civic activists.

On November 24, 2022, the presiding judge of the Southern District Military Court, Vyacheslav Korsakov, and judges Denis Galkin and Igor Shendrikov found Crimean Tatar activists, including Ruslan Suleimanov, guilty of terrorist activities and attempted seizure of power. Enver Ametov and Yashar Muiedinov were sentenced to 13 years in a strict regime colony, and citizen journalists Ruslan Suleimanov, Rustem Sheikhaliiev and Osman Arifmemetov - to 14 years. The political prisoners will spend four years of their sentences in prison, and then another year will be restricted in their freedom of movement. 

The defendants pleaded not guilty. They consider their persecution to be political.

Rustem Seitmemetov, a political prisoner in the case of the 'third Bakhchisarai group' of Hizb ut-Tahrir, has been diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes. 

His wife, Zera Seitmemetova, reported this, referring to a lawyer who visited him in prison in Dimitrovgrad, Crimean Solidarity writes.

According to relatives, Seitmemetov's problems with his eyesight began in the Novocherkassk detention centre. Later, during an examination in another penitentiary institution, where he was held during his sentence, the doctor found that Seitmemetov had cataracts in both eyes. In the prison conditions in Dimitrovgrad, where Seytmemetov is currently being held, it is impossible to perform an operation. 

Seitmemetov also suffers from hypertension. He receives symptomatic treatment, but he has to call for a doctor several times. 

Rustem Seitmemetov was detained on March 11, 2020, in Bakhchisarai (Bağçasaray). On October 29, 2021, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don announced the verdict in the 'third group of Bakhchisarai' case. Four Crimean residents, Seitumer Seitumerov, Osman Seitumerov, Rustem Seitmemetov and Amet Suleimanov, were sentenced to 17, 14, 13 and 12 years in prison in a maximum security colony, respectively.

Russian courts have sentenced Ukrainian prisoners of war to imprisonment for alleged "crimes against civilians". 

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reports. 

The Russians claim that the convicts include members of the Azov, marines and other units of the Defence Forces. 

The Ukrainians are accused of allegedly "crimes against civilians" and "killing civilians" during the fighting in Mariupol. 

Ukrainian soldiers have been 'sentenced' to 15 and 20 years, as well as life imprisonment.