From armed terror to cruel torment of the children of Crimean Tatar political prisoners
11-year-old Mukhammed Bekirov left Crimea for the first time in his life on 31 May. Together with his mother and aunt, he travelled 700 kilometres to Rostov-on-Don (Russia). This was no holiday, although he had longed for the moment for over two long years, as a chance, albeit in a courtroom, to see his political prisoner and journalist father, Remzi Bekirov.
Even that chance was taken from him. The Russian judge, Oleg Volkov, told Khalide Bekirova that “the court fears that the presence of an underage child at a court hearing could adversely affect his psychological state”.
“Seriously?” , Khalide Bekirova, asks bitterly. “And what about a search at 6 a.m. with dozens of armed officers in camouflage and masks? What about terrified children who thought that they had come to kill them?
That doesn’t adversely affect children’s psyche? What double standards!
As a result, our son sat for seven hours in the corridor and on the street, awaiting the end of the court hearing. With tears in his eyes, he is returning how to his native Crimea to the home, where he has been without his father for over two years”.
This was not the only cruel mockery of children who have already suffered so much. On 2 June, the scheduled hearing into the identical trial, running in parallel, of Enver Ametov and four other civic journalists and activists, was first delayed and then simply postponed until 7 June, without any warning. Halyna Ametova and her son, Alim, together with other wives, children, parents of the political prisoners, had travelled the 700 kilometres from Crimea to Rostov through the night, only to have to return, without even seeing the men, who had, she explains, been brought to the courtroom, and were, literally, just beyond the door.
“We asked the judges, via the defence lawyers, to at least let us see our loved ones through an opened door, or to at least allow my son to see his father. Our requests were ignored. They didn’t let us see each other, they didn’t even let a father and son look at each other. Our Alim is a brave lad, he didn’t cry in front of everybody, but walked away, before quietly pouring out his pain in the despairing tears of a child, and then, upset and hugging me, dried them away. The child had travelled a huge and gruelling journey of 700 kilometres, the first such big trip. And all for his father.”
Almost 200 children have had their fathers, recognized political prisoners, taken from them, with many old enough to have been profoundly traumatized by the contingents of masked men who burst into their homes, brandishing machine guns. Some hid under the blankets, believing the men had come to kill them. Others, unfortunately, saw their beloved fathers being pinned to the ground, and handcuffed, before being taken away and imprisoned, without being accused of any recognizable crime.
Remzi Bekirov, Enver Ametov are among 25 Crimean Tatar political prisoners arrested on 27 March 2019 or soon afterwards. Virtually all of the men were active in the important civic initiative Crimean Solidarity, with four men – Osman Arifmemetov ; Remzi Bekirov; Rustem Sheikhaliev; and Ruslan Suleimanov also civic journalists. Shortly before his arrest, Remzi Bekirov had also become an accredited journalist for Grani.ru, one of the few Russian Internet publications that reports on human rights violations in Russia and occupied Crimea.
The mass operation aroused international condemnation over Russia’s cynical use of ‘terrorism’ charges against men taking a civic stand and defending victims of repression. There were immediate demands for the men’s release from, among others, the US State Department, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and Civil Rights Defenders. All of the men were recognized as political prisoners by the Memorial Human Rights Centre.
It is likely that the attention the case attracted prompted Russia to divide the case up into five cloned trials, all of them with identical charges, the same ‘secret witnesses’ and other flawed evidence. All of the men are charged only with ‘involvement’ in the Hizb ut-Tahrir movement, a peaceful Muslim party which is legal in Ukraine, and which is not known to have carried out acts of terrorism anywhere in the world. Russia has never provided any grounds for its highly secretive 2003 Supreme Court ruling that declared Hizb ut-Tahrir ‘terrorist’, yet this inexplicable ruling is now being used as justification for huge sentences on supposed ‘terrorism charges’. Memorial HRC has stressed that Russia has not once, in any of these prosecutions, provided any evidence of “terrorism, or even of plans or discussion of terrorist acts or the use of weapons”. Russia has now begun adding a further charge, under Article 278, of something termed “action aimed at the violent seizure of power … or aimed at violently changing the constitutional order of the Russian Federation”. The 25 civic journalists and activists are clearly supposed to have done this with words alone, since none of the armed searches of the men’s homes found any weapons and there is no evidence of any actual crime or intention to commit one.
The five identical ‘trials’ are now underway at the Southern District Military Court in Rostov which has been notorious as a conveyor belt of politically motivated sentence since the trial of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and civic activist Oleksandr Kolchenko.
Please help inform politicians, human rights NGOs and the media in your country about these pseudo-trials and the methods that Russia is using to silence and imprison Crimean Tatar civic journalists and activists. Please also write to one or more of the men.
The letters sent a vital message of support to the men, and warn Moscow and the prison staff that their behaviour is being watched.
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 the men can answer.
The addresses below can be written in either Russian or in English transcription. The particular addressee’s name and year of birth need to be given.
Sample letter
Привет,
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. ]
The following gives the addresses in English. Only five men are in a different SIZO [remand prison]. In all cases, the men’s year of birth is needed.
Group One
Rayim Aivazov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Aivazov, Rayim Khalilovych, b. 1994
Farkhod Bazarov
344064, Russia, Rostov on the Don, 4 Tonnelnaya St., SIZO-5
Bazarov, Farkhod Egamberdievych, b. 1986
Remzi Bekirov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Bekirov, Remzi Rustemovych, b. 1985
Riza Izetov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Izetov, Riza Mustafayevych, b. 1979
Shaban Umerov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Umerov, Shaban Izetovych, b. 1969
Two
Enver Ametov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Ametov, Enver Efindiyarovych, b. 1975
Osman Arifmemetov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Arifmemetov, Osman Feratovych, b. 1985
Yashar Muyedinov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Muyedinov, Yashar Seifetdinovych, b. 1968
Rustem Sheikhaliev
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Sheikhaliev, Rustem Dinarovych, b. 1979
Ruslan Suleimanov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Suleimanov, Ruslan Serverovych, b. 1983
Three
Tofik Abdulgaziev,
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Abdulgaziev, Tofik Sultanovych, b. 1982
Vladlen Abdulkadyrov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Abdulkadyrov, Vladlen Vasilyevych, b. 1979
Izzet Abdullayev
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Abdullayev, Izet Mustafayevych, b. 1986
Medzhit Abdurakhmanov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Abdurakhmanov, Medzhit Anafiyevych, b. 1975
Bilyal Adilov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Adilov, Bilyal Abdurakhmanovych, b. 1970
Four
Dzhemil Gafarov
344064, Russia, Rostov on the Don, 4 Tonnelnaya St., SIZO-5
Gafarov, Dzhemal Abdullayevych, b. 1962
Servet Gaziev
344064, Russia, Rostov on the Don, 4 Tonnelnaya St., SIZO-5
Gaziev, Servet Abdurayimovych, b. 1960
Alim Karimov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Karimov, Alim Egamberdievych, b. 1994
Seiran Murtaza
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Murtaza, Seiran Kemadinovych, b. 1983
Erfan Osmanov
344064, Russia, Rostov on the Don, 4 Tonnelnaya St., SIZO-5
Osmanov, Erfan Serverovych, b. 1982
Five
Akim Bekirov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Bekirov, Akim Ekremovych, b. 1988
Seitveli Seitabdiev
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Seitabdiev, Seitveli Eskenderovych, b. 1994
Rustem Seitkhalilov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Seitkhalilov, Rustem Narimanovych, b. 1984
Eskender Suleimanov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Suleimanov, Eskender Serverovych, b. 1973
Asan Yanikov
344022 Russian Federation, Rostov on the Don, 219 Maxim Gorky St, SIZO-1
Yanikov, Asan Aliyevych, b. 1986