A Crimean Jehovah’s Witness has been ordered to provide ‘proof of change of faith’ in order to be eligible for alternative civilian service. Russia is already in grave breach of international humanitarian law by conscripting young men on illegally occupied Ukrainian territory, and is now adding open religious repression

Ildar Valiev, a Kazan Tatar has been placed in detention in Odesa because Russia wants to imprison him on identical charges to those it is using against 19 Crimean Muslims, four of whom have already been declared political prisoners.

The Crimean Ukrainians imprisoned in occupied Crimea or Russia on fabricated ‘terrorist’ charges are increasingly used as part of Russia’s propaganda war against Ukraine. The latest, from REN-TV, has come up with scurrilous lies about recognized political prisoner Nuri Primov and a visit from the Ukrainian consul.

It seems that Russia’s FSB are determined to get the 17-year sentence against Ruslan Zeytullaev they need for their paperwork, however many ‘trials’ are required. Meanwhile the 31-year-old father of three is again on hunger strike in protest at the 12-year sentence and ongoing persecution of Crimean Tatars

Russia’s imprisonment of Muslim Aliev and 18 other Crimean Muslims on invented ‘terrorism’ charges may be less overtly political than the trial of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and other opponents of annexation. The aim, however, seems just as clearly to crush dissent, with those targeted also facing horrifically long prison sentences for nothing. .

Russian judges have done what they’re told and sentenced Crimean Tatar political prisoner Ruslan Zeytullaev to 12 years’ maximum security because the FSB needed an ‘organizer’ for its paperwork. The retrial and this sentence are especially chilling since there are three other men charged under the same type of quota, and they face even harsher sentences.

There are strong grounds for believing that Crimean Tatar political prisoner Arsen Dzhepparov has been in detention since April 2016 because of his refusal to act as an FSB informer. He is now being refused an urgently needed operation and is in a very bad state of health. This, his lawyer Dzhemil Temishev stresses, is no longer merely pressure on the young man, and can only be described as torture.

Looking gaunt and frail after 18 days without food, Ruslan Zeytullaev spoke from court on Friday, thanking all those Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians who have expressed their support, but refusing to end his hunger strike until the verdict is handed down

You cannot stir the conscience of those who have none. Primarily for that reason, Mustafa Dzhemiliev, veteran Crimean Tatar leader and former political prisoner, has called on Ruslan Zeytullaev to end his hunger strike. The Crimean Tatar political prisoner has been without food now for 15 days, and after over 2 years of imprisonment in appalling conditions, there are real grounds for concern.

Rustem Vaitov has been punished for refusing to inform on other prisoners and Russia is ignoring the European Court of Human Rights by imprisoning him, Ferat Saifullaev and Nuri Primov thousands of kilometres from their families. All of them have children

Courts in Russian-occupied Crimea have now begun banning relatives and friends from attending court hearings – the only chance many have of seeing the imprisoned men. Most incredibly, the FSB has now told a court that the men should remain in custody as they are recognized internationally as political prisoners!

Ruslan Zeytullaev, one of the first men tried for unproven involvement in an organization which is legal in Ukraine has demanded an end to persecution of his people, and announced a hunger strike until specific demands are met. Zeytullaev addressed his demands to the Russian military court in Rostov where he is currently being retried after his initial sentence was quashed as spoiling the FSB’s story

Teymur Abdullaev, one of 19 Crimean Muslims held illegally in indefinite detention in Russian-occupied Crimea has been placed in a punishment cell for writing a letter to his family in Crimean Tatar. The guards considered that only Russian was acceptable.

If 2 men arrested on Feb 11, 2016 were probably targeted for their human rights or civic activism, it is likely that Vadim Siruk was arrested as an ethnic Ukrainian convert to Islam. Lawyers representing the ever-increasing number of political prisoners in Russian-occupied Crimea have long noted a clear pattern: Devout Muslims are accused of ‘terrorism’; other Ukrainians – of ‘extremism’.

The retrial is underway in Russia of a Crimean Tatar whose 7-year prison sentence for alleged involvement in a peaceful organization that is legal in Ukraine was challenged as too light. There was no evidence against Ruslan Zeitullaev, and remains none, but he is likely to get a minimum 15-year sentence to to save the FSB being asked uncomfortable questions.

It is a year since the multiple armed searches of at least 11 homes in Russian-occupied Crimea and arrests of four men, including a human rights activist monitoring rights abuses under occupation. The four men remain imprisoned, facing absurd charges, and in at least one case, their children have been terrorized by the FSB.

Russia is continuing to use docile judges in occupied Crimea to impose unwarranted penalties on Crimean Tatars for entirely peaceful demonstrations of solidarity with families facing armed searches and arrests

Russia is already holding Crimean Muslims in detention for unproven involvement in an organization which is legal in Ukraine. It has now begun adding the charge of ‘attempting violent seizure of power in Russia’ with this carrying a near-guaranteed increase in sentence of from 12 to 20 years. .

Russia has added Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Ilmi Umerov to its notoriously long list of so-called ‘Terrorists and Extremists’ for saying, as do all democratic states, that Russia should be made to leave Crimea. With its customary contempt for presumption of innocence, it has also added all 19 Crimean Muslims whom it is holding in custody and charging with unproven involvement in an organization which is legal in Ukraine.

On Dec 27, Russia’s Supreme Court allowed the prosecutor’s appeal against Ruslan Zeitullayev’s 7-year sentence (as opposed to the 17-year sentence demanded) and sent the ‘case’ for retrial. The Court rejected the appeals brought by Ferat Saifullayev; Rustem Vaitov and Nuri Primov against their 5-year sentences.