Crimean Tatar sentenced by Russia to 19 years for ‘religious dissidence’ hurled into punishment cell for prayer

While Russian murderers and other real criminals are given pardons, freedom and lavish payments to go and fight against Ukraine, Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners get thrown into punishment cells without any grounds and face constant harassment. 

Muslim Aliev, a recognized political prisoner and Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, has lodged a formal appeal against the most recent such attack.  On 12 December 2024, Aliev was sentenced to 15 days in the horrific conditions of a Russian SHIZO [punishment cell] .  The pretext for this was that he, fellow Crimean Tatar political prisoner Teymur Abdullayev and two other Muslims, had not interrupted their morning prayers when the head of the prison colony entered his cell.    In a letter to lawyer Emil Kurbedinov, Aliev explained that the head had stormed out, with two members of the prison staff appearing five minutes later and recording “some kind of infringements for their material”. At 4 p.m. that day, he was brought before a disciplinary commission which imposed the 15-day term in a SHIZO on him, as well as on Abdullayev. Aliev expressed his opposition to the penalty and said that he would be appealing, with his formal complaint now lodged with the Salavat city court. 

The head of the prison colony was undoubtedly aware that the prayers are obligatory for any practising Muslim, and that they could scarcely interrupt them in order to ‘greet’ him.  In fact, from Aliev’s account, it does appear likely that the head chose such a time deliberately.  Both Aliev and Abdullayev have spent shockingly long periods of time in Russian SHIZO.  Aliev arrived at the harsh-regime prison colony in Bashkortostan on 9 September 2020 and was first sent to SHIZO less than a month later, and was then held there from 4 December 2020 until 23 April 2021.  This was then used as the pretext for transferring him to SUS [‘Harsh conditions’ – another form of punishment cell and restrictions]. 

In his letter to Kurbedinov, Aliev explained that there had been talk of moving the men from the especially harsh conditions to those that are ‘normal’ for the given prison colony.  This, however, was contingent upon them not having faced any disciplinary penalties from May to December.  Aliev had had fulfilled this until 12 December when the head of the prison ‘suddenly’ decided to walk in while he was praying.  The same is almost certainly true of Teymur Abdullayev who has faced near constant imprisonment in SHIZO and especially harsh treatment, probably because of his refusal to collaborate with Russia’s FSB.

Aliev reports that the conditions over the past four years have become noticeably harsher. He does not give any reason, but he would not be the first Ukrainian political prisoner to have faced harsher conditions and increased harassment since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Muslim Aliev (b. 1971) was arrested on 11 February 2016, together with Crimean Tatar human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku (b. 1976)    Inver Bekirov (b. 1963); and Vadim Siruk (b. 1989)  .  Thid was the first such ‘operation’ of quite unprecedented brutality, with armed FSB and other enforcement officers bursting into a number of homes in the Yalta region, brandishing machine guns and terrifying small children.  Two other much younger men – Inver Bekirov’s nephew, Refat Alimov (b. 1991) and Arsen Dzhepparov (b. 1991). were arrested on 18 April 2016.  We know from the testimony of a friend of Kuku’s that at least two of the other men taken away for ‘questioning’ on 11 February were tortured and threatened with the same charges if they did not give false testimony.  Arsen Dzhepparov and his wife had also been expecting that the FSB would come for him after Arsen withstood open threats and refused to collaborate by helping to persecute fellow Crimean Tatars, most of whom, like him, had small children. 

All six men were effectively accused only of unproven involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a peaceful transnational Muslim movement which is legal in Ukraine. The ruling by Russia’s supreme court in 2003 to declare it ‘terrorist’ was kept secret until it was too late to lodge an appeal and has never been adequately explained. Two of the men: Muslim Aliev and Inver Bekirov were designated the role of ‘organizer’ of an entirely hypothetical Hizb ut-Tahrir ‘cell’, under Article 205.5 § 1 of Russia’s criminal code.  The other four men were accused of ‘involvement in this ‘cell’ under Article 205.5 § 2.  Later, all six men were also charged with ‘‘planning to violently seize power’ under Article 278., with this too based solely on the 2003 ruling.

The ‘trial’ was profoundly flawed, with the only ‘evidence’ coming from fake FSB-loyal ‘experts’ and anonymous witnesses.  This, however, was a political trial, with ‘judges’ Roman Viktorovich Saprunov; Dmitry Viktorovich Merkulov and Roman Vladimirovich Podolsky (from the Southern District Military Court in Rostov providing the six guilty verdicts required of them.  These were, on 25 June 2020, upheld by Oleg Aleksandrovich Yegorov; Aleksander Aleksandrovich Mordovin and Anatoly Valentinovich Solin.  Despite having committed no crime,  Muslim Aliev  and Inver Bekirov were sentenced to 19 years; Emir-Usein Kuku  and Vadim Siruk to 12 years; Refat Alimov to 8 years and Arsen Dzhepparov to 7 years. 

All six men were recognized by the Memorial Human Rights Centre as political prisoners and are Amnesty International prisoners of conscience. 

Although international protest was largely prompted by the fact that Russia had so clearly targeted Kuku for his human rights activism, Aliev’s arrest was also because of his civic and religious ‘dissidence’.  Aliev was the first of three Crimean Tatar political prisoners whose arrests were  almost certainly linked with their active membership of the ‘Alushta’ Muslim Community.  There has been a mounted offensive against this religious community because of its religious independence which is not tolerated by the Russian regime and the Directorate of Muslims of Crimea.  The latter, under Mufti Emirali Ablayev, chose to collaborate with the invading state in return for power and privilege. The attack iwas almost certainly also to seize the 19th Century Yukary Dzhami Mosque in the very centre of Alushta which had legally been in the hands of the ‘Alushta’ community since 1994.  Aliev had, from 2005, been an active member, and even the informal leader, of the community and had often, at their request, led Friday prayers and delivered sermons.  He was often invited to organize burials and ritual prayers, as well as to administer weddings. 

The only ‘evidence’ against Aliev and the five other men was a linguistic-religious ‘expert assessment’  of an illicitly recorded conversation “in the kitchen” where the men were discussing the situation in Russia, Ukraine, the fate of Crimea, the place of Islam in both countries and various religious postulates.   The FSB passed this by its loyal ‘experts’ who are willing to find ‘proof’ of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir in the use of a word, or expression of an opinion.  This nonsensical ‘evidence’ was then supplemented by anonymous ‘witnesses’ whose testimony could not be verified.