~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.
Russia admits for the first time that it is holding journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna in captivity
The Russian Ministry of Defence has confirmed holding Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna. Viktoriia's father, Volodymyr Roshchyn, received a letter from the Russian Defence Ministry and informed the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.
According to available information, Roshchyna Viktoriia Volodymyrivna, born on 6.10.1996, has been arrested and is currently being held in the Russian Federation,' the letter reads.
The letter is dated April 17, 2024. The International Committee of the Red Cross has confirmed to Volodymyr Roshchyn that his daughter is in captivity. There is currently no access to her.
Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared on August 3, 2023, in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine from where she worked as a journalist.
She was a freelance journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Ukrainska Pravda, and hromadske.
Political prisoner Rustem Seitmemetov suffers a heart attack in a Russian prison
Rustem Seitmemetov, a prisoner sentenced to 13 years, underwent surgery after suffering a heart attack in a Russian prison. The prisoner's wife, Zera Seitmemetova, told Crimean Solidarity.
Seitmemetov is 'serving his sentence' in a prison in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region. According to relatives, Rustem fell ill on May 15. He had previously been moved to another cell for quarantine, which was very cold. To keep warm, he often did physical exercises and once fainted.
In a hospital, Rustem Seitmemetov was diagnosed with a heart attack and underwent surgery. He has been given unfamiliar medicines and has not been informed of his condition or the results of his tests.
The conditions of detention of any of the Ukrainian political prisoners do not meet the current norms of international law. This leads to the deterioration of the prisoners' health and can even be equated with torture,' wrote the Ukrainian Parliament's Human Rights Commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets.
Rustem Seitmemetov was detained in Bakhchysarai (Bağçasaray) on March 11, 2020. He is a defendant in the third Bakhchysarai group of the Hizb ut-Tahrir case. On October 29, 2021, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced him to 13 years' imprisonment in a maximum security colony.
The Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir has been banned in the Russian Federation since 2003. On the territory of Ukraine and in most countries, the organisation operates without restrictions at the level of national legislation.
Three Crimean political prisoners transferred to a psychiatric hospital for examination
Political prisoners from Dzhankoi (Canköy, temporarily occupied Crimea), Enver Khalilayev, Arsen Kashko and Vahid Mustafayev, have been sent to the Republican Clinical Psychiatric Hospital in Simferopol (Aqmescit) for compulsory forensic psychiatric examination. Lawyer Emil Kurbedinov informed Crimean Solidarity about this.
The lawyer said that according to the Criminal Procedure Code, psychiatric examination is not compulsory in this category of cases. Kurbedinov sees it as a way of putting pressure on those arrested in politically motivated criminal cases.
'This is a dangerous tendency. Today it is just a 'roll-out' of the practice of placing people in psychiatric hospitals without legal grounds, and tomorrow no one will be immune from the use of drugs,' the defence lawyer believes.
On the morning of March 5, 2024, security forces searched the homes of ten Crimean Tatars in the Bakhchysarai and Dzhankoi districts of Crimea. They were all accused of involvement in the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Russia.
Political prisoner Ismet Ibragimov complains of dental and stomach problems
Ismet Ibragimov, sentenced to 19 years in prison, needs dental treatment and complains of stomach pains. His wife, Razie Mustafayeva, reported this to Crimean Solidarity.
Ibragimov is being held in a prison in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region. His wife and two children have visited him. His wife reported it was the first long visit in four years of imprisonment.
Ismet Ibragimov told his wife that he would serve two years instead of five after recalculating his sentence. He will serve the remainder of his sentence in a strict regime colony.
On July 7, 2020, FSB officers detained several Crimean Muslims in different parts of Crimea. Ismet Ibragimov was placed in a pre-trial detention centre in Simferopol. He was accused of organising the activities of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party.
In July 2022, a court sentenced Ismet Ibragimov to 19 years' imprisonment, of which the first five years must be served in prison. After his release, he will face a further two years of restrictions on his freedom of movement.
