MENU
Documenting
war crimes in Ukraine

The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) global initiative was set up in response to the all-out war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.

Similar articles

Russia’s religious persecution for statistics in occupied Crimea Effective death sentence for refusing to help Russian FSB persecute Crimean Tatars Blind man among those arrested for Russia’s conveyor belt of terror in occupied CrimeaRussian FSB plants “prohibited literature” to imprison Crimean Tatar activists for 10 years or moreRussian court expels Crimean Tatar defendants from court for asserting their rightsRussian "experts" claim calls to pray for political prisoners are proof of terrorismRussia moves to hide its political trial of Crimean Tatar civic activistsCrimean Tatar veteran: My grandfather was tried on the same charges as my sonRussia begins show trial of Crimean Tatar civic activists and journalistsSolitary confinement in torture-like conditions for reporting on human rights abuse in occupied CrimeaRussia breaks all records in Crimea with level of persecution of 8 Crimean TatarsRussia brings charges of ‘planning to violently seize power’ for Crimean Solidarity with political prisonersRussia fights Crimean Solidarity with long prison sentences and shattered childhoodsCrimean Tatar Civic Activists arrested in new offensive against Crimea SolidarityCrimean Tatar faces huge sentence in Russian FSB’s ‘machine of wholesale persecution’FSB’s ‘secret witness’ exposed during trial of 6 Crimean political prisonersRussia condemned for launching ‘machine of wholesale persecution’ in occupied CrimeaProfoundly cynical trial begins of Crimean Tatar human rights activist and five other Crimean MuslimsRussian FSB “make their careers” by jailing Crimean Muslims on fake ’terrorism’ & ’extremism’ chargesNew weapon of religious persecution and arrests in Russian-occupied Crimea

Crimean Solidarity activist faces 19-year sentence for discussing religion

09.07.2021   
Halya Coynash
For innocuous conversations on religious topics, civic activist Emil Ziyadinov is likely to receive an 18-20 year sentence.

Emil Ziyadinov Photo Crimean Solidarity

Russia’s arrests and ‘trials’ of Crimean Tatar political prisoners are such a conveyor belt of repression that it can seem hard to distinguish one case from another.  The majority involve the same fake ‘terrorism’ charges; identical ‘expert’ opinions; anonymous witnesses and predetermined sentences. The victims, however, have names and families.  In the vast majority of cases, small children have been awoken by masked men, bursting into their homes, brandishing machine guns, before taking their fathers away.  Each such trauma is individual and may leave a scar for life.

Emil Ziyadinov, a 37-year-old father of four whom the renowned Memorial Human Rights Centre has just recognized as a political prisoner. is no exception.  Like very many Crimean Tatars and devout Muslims, he was not willing to look the other way while other men were being arrested, and had joined the Crimean Solidarity civic initiative, attending political trials, taking part in solitary pickets, etc.  Nor did he stop when he himself faced harassment and charges of ‘not obeying enforcement officers’ for peacefully standing outside the home of Crimean Solidarity civic journalist Rustem Sheikhaliev during the latter’s arrest.

Russia’s FSB came for Ziyadinov during its ‘operation’ on 7 July 2020, when eleven armed searches were carried out and seven men arrested, including a Russian convert to Islam, Alexander Sizikov, who is blind and walks with difficulty.  All of the men, who included four civic activists, were charged with ‘involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir ‘,a peaceful Muslim organization which is legal in Ukraine, and which is not known to have committed any acts of terrorism or violence anywhere in the world.  The highly secretive Russian Supreme Court’s ruling in 2003, which declared  Hizb ut-Tahrir  and many other organizations ‘terrorist’ was probably passed for political reasons, with Moscow looking for a way of forcibly sending Uzbek refugees back to Uzbekistan where they faced religious persecution. 

Russia has been making arrests in occupied Crimea on the basis of that flawed ruling since January 2015, and has increasingly used these fake ‘terrorism’ charges as a weapon against Crimean Solidarity and human rights activists in general.

In declaring Ziyadinov a political prisoner and demanding his immediate release, the Memorial Human Rights Centre notes that the Crimean Tatar father of four was arrested on terrorist charges, without being accused of any specific terrorist activities.

We consider that he is being persecuted for his non-violent exercising of his right to freedom of religion and of association. According to our information, he has been deprived of his liberty without any elements of a crime in order to stop his religious activities and also to crush the civic activism of residents of annexed Crimea.”

Ziyadinov has been charged with the more serious ‘organizing a Hizb ut-Tahrir  group’ (under Article 205.5 § 1 of Russia’s criminal code), with this carrying a sentence of up to life imprisonment.  While Russian courts seem willing to slightly reduce the monstrous sentences demanded by prosecutors under Article 205.5 § 2 (‘involvement in a Hizb ut-Tahrir group), they show no such flexibility where the charge is of ‘organizing’.  At present, Crimean Tatars accused of this are receiving sentences of between 18 and 20 years.

It has also become standard in occupied Crimea to charge all these political prisoners under Articles 30 and 278 – with planning an armed uprising.  There has not been one case where ‘searches’ have found any weapons, etc, nor is there any evidence even of specific plans.  The charges, Memorial notes, are based solely on the fact that Hizb ut-Tahrir  views as its ultimate goal the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate, with this encompassing regions inhabited by Muslims.

Memorial has studied the ‘evidence’ in this case and found it seriously lacking in substance.  There are supposed ‘expert assessments’ of the transcripts of four meetings between Ziyadinov and an unidentified person.  These alleged experts claim that Ziyadinov is behaving like “a teacher”, “a mentor”, etc., while the unidentified person purportedly behaves like “a student”.  The two men read what are asserted to be “texts from the ideological sources of Hizb ut-Tahrir “ and discussed them. “According to the investigators, this constitutes ‘terrorist activities’, Memorial notes.

Memorial reiterates its long-standing position, that the Supreme Court ruling declaring Hizb ut-Tahrir  ‘terrorist’ was unwarranted and illegal, and provided no proof of any terrorist activities.  The human rights NGO does, in fact, consider all those convicted merely of ‘involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir’ to be political prisoners.  

The situation is especially bad in occupied Crimea, given that Hizb ut-Tahrir  is perfectly legal in Ukraine. Memorial has also repeatedly noted in the past that Russia is in breach of international law (the Fourt Geneva Convention, for example) in applying Russian legislation on occupied territory.

Memorial also mentions Ziyadinov’s civic activism and states that “charges of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir  have become a weapon for crushing Crimeans’ solidarity”.

Emil Ziyadinov with his youngest son, Mukhammad, above from left Asadullakh, Umar and to the right Davud Photos from Crimean Solidarity / Crimean Childhood

Like most of the Crimean Tatars imprisoned on these charges, Emil Ziyadinov was born in exile (as a result of Stalin’s 1944 Deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar people).  He is now once again exiled, in Russia, very far from his wife and four small sons (Asadullakh, b. 2011; Umar, b. 2013;  Davud, b. 2014; and Mukhammad, born in 2018.  A graduate of the Taurida National University, he originally worked as a sports trainer, however had, in 2018, completed professional studies and become a qualified electrician.

Ziyadinov’s ‘trial’ began at the Southern District Military Court in Rostov (Russia) in April this year.  The arrests on 7 July 2020 showed one ominous difference from previous ‘operations’ with he and three other men ‘on trial’ alone.  This makes it much harder to follow all of the ‘trials’, sucwhile probably enabling the FSB officers involved to pump up their statistics (claiming to have ‘solved’ X number of ‘terrorist cases’).  Memorial has already declared Vadim Bektemirov and Ismet Ibragimov political prisoners, and it is only a matter of time before it issues statements regarding all of the men facing these grotesque charges.

Please write to Emil Ziyadinov!

The letters tell him and Moscow that he is not forgotten and that Russia’s treatment of him is under close scrutiny. Letters need to be in Russian, and on ‘safe’ subjects.  If that is a problem, use the sample letter below (copying it by hand), perhaps adding a picture or photo. Do add a return address so that he can answer. 

Sample letter

Здравствуйте,

Желаю Вам здоровья, мужества и терпения, надеюсь на скорое освобождение. Простите, что мало пишу – мне трудно писать по-русски, но мы все о Вас помним.

[Hi.  I wish you good health, courage and patience and hope that you will soon be released.  I’m sorry that this letter is short – it’s hard for me to write in Russian., but you are not forgotten. ]  

Address

344022, Россия,, Ростовская обл., г. Ростов-на-Дону, ул. Максима Горького, 219, ФКУ СИЗО-1  

Зиядинову, Эмилю Исмаиловичу, 1984 г.р. 

Or in English

344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1

Ziyadinov, Emil Ismailovich, b. 1984

 

 

 Share this