Russia illegally detains at least 181 Kremlin prisoners
According to Mission of the President of Ukraine in ARC, this is the number of detained Ukrainian citizens illegally held by Russians in the temporarily occupied Crimea. Forty of them are arrested, another 125 are imprisoned, and eighteen have no procedural status. About 60% of the illegally detained are Crimean Tatars.
Last week, two prisoners died in Russian illegal detention.
In addition, Russians are illegally detaining Ukrainians in other temporarily occupied regions. However, there is less public information about their fates, as Russia denies that these illegal arrests took place.
On February 9, a Russian court rejected an appeal against the previous "verdict" in the case of the so-called "Third Bağçasaray group, Hizb ut-Tahrir" — Crimean Solidarity
Russians sent four illegally detained Ukrainian citizens to prison for over 12 years. Among them is Amet Suleimanov, who needs a heart valve replacement and may die in the colony.
As a reminder, in March 2020, Russians abducted four Crimean Tatars: Osman Seitumerov, Seitumer Seitumerov, Amet Suleimanov and Rustema Seitmemetova.
Subsequently, in 2021, a Russian court passed a verdict in their case: Seitumer was sentenced to 17 years in prison, Osman to 14, Rustem to 13, and Amet to 15 years in prison.
The defence lawyers appealed this decision. Amet Suleimanov has a dangerous heart condition, so he was kept under house arrest during the investigation, not in a pre-trial detention centre.
However, on February 9, the Russian court rejected the appeal. "They sentenced him to death. Imprisonment for a person with such a disease is death," said Amet's lawyer Lilia Gemedzhi.
As a reminder, two Ukrainian citizens, Dzhemil Gafarov and Kostiantyn Shiring died in Russian illegal detention in February.
Kremlin prisoner Nariman Dzhelial collected information about illegally abducted Ukrainian citizen Oleksii Kyselov
The Russians beat, interrogated and twice took Kyselov for execution. As a result, he is currently not receiving medical care.
The information collected was published by the Krym.Realii project.
As a reminder, Russians abducted Kyselov on July 22. He was forced to defame himself. Since then, the man has been held in Simferopol. Russian security forces "suspect" Kyselov of being a member of the Crimean Tatar battalion named after Noman Çelebicihan and organising a "sea blockade" of the peninsula.
Kyselov told Dzhelial that he met with other illegally abducted Ukrainian citizens during the transfer. "All of them tell horrible things about their arrest and confinement in the detention centre," he said.
The Russians do not provide medical care to the detainee. For 60 days, he has been trying to get a medical examination. He got to the medical centre only after a hunger strike. The doctor wrote a prescription, but Kyselov was not given the drug.
On February 10, Russian security forces conducted an illegal search of environmental activist Dmytro Demchuk — the Krym.Realii project
They illegally entered his apartment in the temporarily occupied Sudaq.
After the "search", the Russians took Demchuk to the occupation "centre countering extremism". On the way, he was threatened with rape and enforced disappearance.
In the temporarily occupied Simferopol, he was interrogated and threatened throughout the day. Then he was hit in the head and taken to the bus station.
Later, one of the search participants came to him and offered to close the case for a bribe. Having received a refusal, he promised to illegally imprison the man.
On February 15, a Russian court illegally imprisoned a Ukrainian citizen for 16 years.
Russian security forces brought "charges" of espionage against him.
This is evidenced by the statement of the Tula Regional Court.
The Russians claim that in 2020-2021, this person collected secret information and transmitted it. However, the person's identity has not been disclosed.
