~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.

In Russia, a court has handed down a so-called 'verdict' to Oleksandr Kovalyk, an armoured personnel carrier (APC) gunner with the First Separate Marine Battalion of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, for the alleged murder of a car driver in Mariupol. A soldier of the Azov Brigade, Serhii Mykhailenko, was 'convicted' of the alleged murder of four people and an attempted murder of three.

The RF Investigative Committee announced.

The Russians accuse Oleksandr Kovalyk of allegedly "cruel treatment of civilians, the use of prohibited means and methods in an armed conflict, and murder committed by an organised group on the grounds of political and ideological hatred". The Ukrainian soldier was "sentenced" to 25 years in prison. 

The Russians unlawfully accused Serhii Mykhailenko of "killing four people and attempting to kill three more". He was 'sentenced to life imprisonment'.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Oleksandr Kovalyk went missing on April 17, 2022, in Mariupol, and Serhii Mykhailenko went missing on May 19, 2022, in the temporarily occupied Olenivka, Donetsk region. 

It will be recalled that the Geneva Conventions treat such "trials" of POWs as a crime.

The so-called "Magistrates' Court" of the village of Kirovske in the temporarily occupied Crimea fined Imam Ismaiil Yurdamov from the village of Dzhuma-Eli (Pryvitne) RUB 8,000 for "illegal missionary activity". 

Crimean Solidarity reports. 

In court, the lawyer and Yurdamov himself planned to interrogate the defence witnesses, who were parishioners of the mosque. Yurdamov used to offer prayers there. According to Rustem Kiamylov, the defence ensured the attendance of all the witnesses - they arrived at the court and waited to be called. However, Judge Ivan Kuvshynov did not grant the motion to question the witnesses. The decision was justified by the fact that the administrative record did not mention these witnesses. 

Imam Ismaiil Yurdamov disagreed with the charges of illegal missionary activity.

It will be recalled that on December 13, 2023, the house of Imam Ismaiil Yurdamov was searched. Then, Yurdamov was taken to the police department, where an administrative report was drawn up against him. 

As it became known in the Kirovsky district police department, the search was carried out by the officers of the so-called "Centre for Countering Extremism".

The so-called 'Supreme Court' of the illegal armed group 'Donetsk People's Republic' has illegally convicted two Ukrainian prisoners of war for the alleged 'murder' of a Russian serviceman and 'incitement to kill civilians'.

The Russian Investigative Committee reports.

It concerns the commander of the first squad of the second platoon of the third company of the first battalion of the military unit 3057, Junior Sergeant Oleksandr Kuzmenko. Kuzmenko was accused of allegedly 'killing two civilians'.

Another serviceman of the military unit 3057, a corpsman, senior soldier Oleksandr Zazhyrenko. In March 2022, in Mariupol, he allegedly gave an order to "kill a wounded Russian soldier".

"The 'court' 'sentenced' Oleksandr Zazhyrenko to 28 years in prison, and Oleksandr Kuzmenko was sentenced to 25 years.

The administration of the Novocherkassk Detention Centre No.3 in the Russian Federation ignored the request of civilian journalist Rustem Sheikhaliiev to undergo an electrocardiogram. On January 16, during a court hearing, he suffered a heavy nosebleed.

Crimean Solidarity reports.

Rustem Sheikhaliiev suspects that he has heart failure. The administration does not respond to his requests.

According to him, a prisoner died in this detention centre recently. No details of the death were provided. Also, last year, Crimean Tatar activist Dzhemil Hafarov, who regularly complained about his health, died in the same detention centre.

Rustem Sheikhaliiev told his lawyer that the detention conditions in SIZO No. 3 were harsh. There has been no water in the cell for several days, and the administration refuses to fix the problems. The detainees are bothered by rats. People are forced to take turns sleeping and making sure that rats do not bite any of their cellmates.

As early as January 16, during the so-called 'court hearing', Rustem Sheikhaliiev suffered from severe nosebleeds. 

The first bleeding occurred in the morning. Sheikhaliiev was in the cell and could not stop it for 10 minutes. He demanded to call a paramedic and refused to attend the 'court hearing'. The doctor gave him an injection, the name of which neither Sheikhaliiev nor his defence lawyer Lilia Hemedzhi knows, and helped to stop the bleeding.

After that, Sheikhaliiev was taken to a cell, from where he and other defendants convicted in his case were supposed to participate in the hearing. But the political prisoner developed another nosebleed. This time, the bleeding could not be stopped for over 20 minutes. 

After that, the pre-trial detention centre staff did perform an ECG on the Crimean Tatar but never made a diagnosis or prescriptions. 

It will be recalled that on March 27, 2019, the most massive searches of Crimean Tatar homes took place simultaneously in the Kamianka and Strohanivka neighbourhoods of Simferopol (Aqmescit). Due to the enormous volume of materials, 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, Chief Judge of the Southern District Military Court Vyacheslav Korsakov, with 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 nearly 13 years in a strict regime colony, and civilian journalists Ruslan Suleimanov, Rustem Sheikhaliiev and Osman Arifmemetov received 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 and consider their persecution to be political.

The political prisoner in the case of the 'First Simferopol Group', Hizb ut-Tahrir, sentenced to 16.5 years, Teimur Abdullaiev, complained of severe headaches and pain in his eyes. 

This was reported by the mother of the political prisoner Diliar Abdullaiev, Crimean Solidarity writes. 

Abdullayev had difficulty distinguishing between objects both up close and at a distance.

His mother demanded that the head of the medical service in the colony examine her son, do a blood test and bring an ophthalmologist to Teimur. The prison doctor made a fluoroscopy, measured his blood pressure, and listened to his heart and lungs.

Another son of Diliar Abdullaiev, Uzeiir, also has health problems. He complained of a constantly swollen leg and shortness of breath. But his condition is better than Teimur's.

The brothers Uzeiir and Teimur Abdullaiev were arrested in October 2016, along with three other Crimean Tatars. They were accused of involvement in the activities of the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir.

On June 18, 2019, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Rustem Ismaiilov to 14 years in prison, while Aider Saledinov and Emil Dzhemadenov, respectively, to 12 years. The court sentenced brothers Teimur and Uzeiir Abdullaiev to 17 and 13 years respectively. In December 2019, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation reduced their sentences by six months. Later, they were transferred to Russian colonies near the Republic of Bashkortostan.

Lawyer Emil Kurbedinov filed a cassation to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in the case of Master of Islamic Studies and Arabic Philology Vadym Bektemirov, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison. 

Crimean Solidarity reports.

In the cassation appeal, the lawyer pointed to a large number of violations at the investigation stage and in court. Thus, the defence argued that Bektemirov was subjected to political persecution because of his religious beliefs.

He also stressed that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War applies to Vadym.

It will be recalled that in 2022, Vadym Bektemirov was sentenced to 11 years in prison on trumped-up charges of "terrorist activity". The court later rejected his appeal against the sentence.