~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 204 illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens, 123 of whom are Qırımtatarlar.
During the full-scale war, 2,828 Ukrainian citizens were returned to Ukraine, including 150 civilians.
Russians convict a Crimean Tatar for allegedly being a member of the Noman Çelebicihan Battalion
Russians have sentenced a Crimean Tatar from the Kherson region to three and a half years in prison for allegedly being a member of the Noman Çelebicihan Battalion.
The Crimean Human Rights Group reports.
In the text of the so-called "court decision", Eldar Alimovych Kestan, a resident of the village of Partyzany, Henichesk district, Kherson region, was found "guilty" of "participation in an armed formation". This "decision" was made by "judge" Serhii Indireikin of the so-called " Henichesk District Court" of the Kherson region on November 28, 2023.
Kestan allegedly joined the battalion in 2015.
According to the text of the decision, Eldar Kestan was detained in Henichesk on August 3, 2023. The Crimean Human Rights Group assumes that he is most likely being held in the new pre-trial detention centre in Chonhar, Kherson region.
Russians deny that prison guards forced Crimean Tatar Timur Yalkabov to shave his head
The Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Ulyanovsk region denies that Crimean Tatar Timur Yalkabov was forced to shave his head in the Dimitrovgrad prison.
Crimean Solidarity writes about this regarding the text of the response to the appeal of Timur's wife, Aliie Muzhdabaieva.
The Federal Penitentiary Service stated that "no abuse of authority by the staff of the institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Ulyanovsk region in terms of the use of physical force was allowed" and, according to the results of the inspection, "the fact of illegal use of physical force" against Yalkabov "was not established".
According to the Crimean Solidarity, it became known in late November last year that the wardens of Dimitrovgrad Prison No. 1 had used force against Timur Yalkabov. According to his wife, he was forced to wash his head with cold water in the sink after a forced shave. The political prisoner refused, as he suffers from asthma and should not be exposed to cold water.
The Federal Penitentiary Service's response to this states that "the hairdressing salon is equipped with a sink with hot and cold water supply", and physical force is used only to "stop disobedience or opposition to the lawful demands of the penitentiary system".
They also add that since 12 January 2023, Timur has been under the supervision of the medical unit. He has repeatedly turned to them for help. According to the FPS, he has allegedly been examined by specialists on several occasions, had tests done, and "receives outpatient treatment following the regulations" and feels "satisfactory". Regarding the fact that doctors do not provide him with medical care and refuse to do so, and the biased attitude of doctors, the FPS says that the facts have not been "established".
The FPS refused to tell his wife about Timur's condition on the grounds that she had not attached a written consent from her husband to transfer data on his health status.
On March 22, 2022, the Southern District Military Court of Rostov-on-Don sentenced Timur Yalkabov and Lenur Seidametov to 17 and 13 years respectively in a strict regime colony.
After the verdict, on December 20, 2022, the Crimean Tatar political prisoner was transferred from Novocherkassk to Dimitrovgrad. On February 9, 2023, he was placed in a punishment cell for 12 days after his personal belongings and prayer rugs were taken away. But later, the term was extended — Yalkabov was there for almost three months, until May 5.
In mid-May 2023, his wife, Aliie Muzhdabaieva, reported that her husband had lost 25 kilograms in three months.
