Huge sentences without a crime. 10 years of Russia’s conveyor belt of religious and political persecution in occupied Crimea
23 January 2025 marks a bitter anniversary for Crimea, and especially for Crimean Tatars. It was on that day in 2015 that Russia’s FSB first launched a conveyor belt of persecution in occupied Crimea which has, by now, shattered the lives of well over a hundred families. It is typical of the particular methods of repression that Russia has used on occupied Ukrainian territory that the FSB has almost openly targeted civic journalists and activists from the Crimean Solidarity human rights movement, who had refused to remain silent about the mounting terror and persecution in occupied Crimea.
The sentences over the last ten years have increased massively, as have the methods of repression and terror used to disperse and / or prosecute family members, friends and civic activists who gather peacefully to show their solidarity. The basic features of such ‘cases’ have changed little, with the same lawless charges, armed ‘operations’ against law-abiding men and their families, terror tactics against those who came to support the arrested men, and the reliance on fabricated evidence from FSB-loyal ‘experts’ and anonymous witnesses whose testimony cannot be verified.
Despite all of the above features, and the fact that the arrests came only a week before the arrest and legally nihilistic charges against Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Akhtem Chiygoz, the first arrests were scarcely noticed or commented upon abroad. If, as had seemed likely, Moscow was testing the ground to see how far it could use its repressive measures on occupied territory, the lack of reaction would have seemed like a carte blanche.
After armed ‘searches’ and the arrests of Ruslan Zeytullaev; Rustem Vaitov and Nuri (Yury) Primov from a village near Sevastopol on 23 January 2015, the FSB also came for a fourth friend and colleague, Ferat Saifullaev, on 18 April that year. Although the Russian and Russian-occupation media invariably claim that the FSB ‘have broken up a terrorist organization’, Russia’s ‘terrorism’ charges are based solely on a flawed and secretive Russian Supreme court ruling from 2023 which declared the transnational Muslim organization Hizb ut-Tahrir ‘terrorist’, without providing any grounds. While Hizb ut-Tahrir has controversial views, it remains legal in Ukraine, and Russia is in violation of international law by applying its legislation on occupied Ukrainian territory. Despite this, it began then and has continued using entirely unproven charges of ‘involvement’ in Hizb ut-Tahrir as excuse for passing sentences of up to 20 years against Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian Muslims from Crimea. Nuri Primov; Ferat Saifullaev and Rustem Vaitov were all charged with ‘taking part in a terrorist organization’ under Article 205.5 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code, while Ruslan Zeytullaev was accused of ‘organizing’ it (Article 205.5 § 1).
The prosecution’s ‘case’ against the four men was based on an illicitly taped meeting arranged by an FSB provocateur, who was later a ‘secret witness’ at the ‘trial’. This ‘kitchen conversation’, at which the FSB agent asked deliberately provocative questions, was then used to convict the men, although the questions had nothing to do with terrorism and merely concerned the men’s religious beliefs and political views. The transcript was sent to the FSB-loyal ‘expert’ who falsely claimed that words which are commonly used in Crimean Tatar ‘proved’ the men’s involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir. The ‘testimony’ from the secret (anonymous) witness was even more dodgy with the suspicious pauses from this individual who was in a separate room probably meaning that he was being told how to answer. The other witness for the prosecution was Oleksandr Kozhemyaka, a former SBU [Ukrainian Security Service] official who betrayed his oath of allegiance to Ukraine and began working for the FSB. There is considerable evidence that he had a vested interest in a land dispute which Zeitullaev and Saifullaev won in 2012. Other prosecution witnesses essentially spoke in favour of the men in court and one said that he had signed his ‘testimony’ without reading it after being told he would also be arrested if he didn’t.
Memorial (then the Memorial Human Rights Centre) recognized the four men to be political prisoners long before the trial ended and demanded their release.
The ‘trial’ took place at what is now called the Southern District Military Court in Rostov. Despite the lack of any recognizable crime or of any real evidence, the prosecutor had demanded 17 years against Zeytullaev, and 7-8 years in the case of the other three men.
On 7 September 2016, all four men appeared in court, wearing T-shirts reading: ’Banned again’; ’Crimean Tatars’; Order carried out as commissioned’ and ‘the show ends’. The three judges did not find the courage to acquit the four, but did pass significantly lower sentences than those demanded, with Primov, Saifullaev and Vaitov getting the minimum sentence allowed – 5 years. In Zeytullaev’s case, the court changed the charge from being the supposed organizer, to simply taking part in a Hizb ut-Tahrir group and he was sentenced to 7 years. By Russian standards, this was a ‘victory’.
It was, however, fleeting. Zeytullaev’s lawyer Emil Kurbedinov rightly predicted that the FSB would not tolerate deviation from their storyline which required an ‘organizer’ and several people who are merely ‘involved’ and / or ‘recruited’. The sentence was challenged and then challenged again, until Russia’s Supreme Court came up with a 15-year sentence.
Ruslan Zeytullaev will turn 40 on 15 June 2025. He was 29 when arrested, with three small daughters. Without any crime, he remains imprisoned in the Russian Federation ‘republic’ of Bashkortostan (Bashkiria), around two and a half thousand kilometres from his family.
If you can, please write to Ruslan Zeytullaev!
The letters tell him – and Moscow – that he is not forgotten. Letters need to be in Russian and on ‘safe’ subjects.
Address
453256, Башкортостан, г. Салават, ст. Южный, ФКУ ИК № 2 УФСИН России по Республике. Башкортостан,
Зейтуллаеву, Руслану Борисовичу, 1985 г.р.
Or in English (slightly shortened)
45325 Bashkortostan, Salavat, Prison No. 2,
Zeytullaev, Ruslan Borisovych, born 1985