• Topics / Human Rights Abuses in Russian-occupied Crimea
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Certain death warrant as six Crimean Tatar activists sentenced to 14 years ‘for refusing to be silent’ about Russian repression

30.04.2025

Halya Coynash

14 years for discussing daily prayers and other aspects of the men’s faith – and for refusing to remain silent about Russia’s lawless repression in occupied Crimea

From left Leman Zekeryaev, Ekrem Krosh, Aider Asanov, Khalil Mambetov, Refat Seidametov and Osman Abdurazakov Photo Crimean Solidarity

Russia’s Southern District Military Court in Rostov has passed five 14-year and one 11-year sentences against six Crimean Tatars from Dzhankoi for purportedly ‘planning to violently seize power’. This could only have been through an illicitly taped conversation about daily prayers and other aspects of their religious faith, as not one of the men was accused of any recognizable crime. The verdict is especially shocking as the 14-year term in one case is effectively a death sentence since Khalil Mambetov is about to turn 70 and has serious health issues.

All six sentences announced on 29 April 2025 by presiding ‘judge’ Viacheslav Alekseevich Korsakov are for maximum-security [‘harsh-regime’] imprisonment with the first three or four years in a prison, the worst of Russian penal institutions. Khalil Mamebetov (b. 1955); Refat Seidametov (b. 1969); Osman Abdurazakov (b. 1984); Aider Asanov (b. 1963) and; Ekrem Krosh (b. 1985) were sentenced to 17 years, with the first four years in a prison. Leman Zekeryaev (b. 1973) was sentenced to 11 years, with the first three in a prison.

Khalil Mambetov Photo Crimean Solidarity

The sentences were all significantly shorter than the 17.5-year sentences demanded against Mambetov and Seidametov, and 17 years against the other men. This may have been because the three ‘judges’ were well aware that Mambetov, who turns 70 in May, would be most unlikely to survive even the shorter sentence. Since the only just verdict would have been six acquittals, there are no grounds for assuming that the ‘judges’ were uncomfortable passing such monstrous sentences against innocent men.

“For refusing to be silent”

This was yet another of Russia’s conveyor belt ‘trials’ against Crimean Tatar or other Ukrainian Muslims in occupied Crimea. As always, the men were accused of unproven involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a peaceful transnational Muslim organization which is legal in Ukraine. A secretive and unexplained ruling in 2003 from Russia’s Supreme Court is used to justify charges under Russian ‘terrorism’ legislation and, therefore, horrifically long sentence. Such cases normally involve one or more men being accused under Article 205.5 § 1 of Russia’s criminal code of being “the organizer(s)’ of a Hizb ut-Tahrir group, with the others facing the less serious charge of being ‘involved’ in such a supposed group (under Article 205.5 § 2). This was one of the few such ‘trials’ where all six political prisoners were charged with ‘involvement’ under Article 205.5 § 2. All were, however, accused also of ‘planning to violently seize power’, under Article 278.

The nature of such ‘’terrorism’ charges can be seen in the fact that the armed enforcement officers who burst into the men’s homes on 24 January 2023 made no pretence of looking for weapons, explosives or any evidence of ‘plans to violently seize power’. They were intent only on ‘finding prohibited religious literature’, which they had brought themselves, with this one of the reasons why lawyers are always illegally prevented from being present and why the prosecution and court invariably reject applications for the alleged evidence to undergo fingerprint and DNA tests.

During his final address, Ekrem Krosh described the manner in which armed men burst into his home at 4 a.m. on 24 January 2023, pointing several machine guns at him and terrifying his family. So which of us then are the terrorists, he asked. Krosh described aspects of this “shameful fabrication” – the imitation of a search, aimed solely at planting books he had never set eyes on, and the illicitly taped conversation which was supposed to prove the men’s involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir. He pointed out that he had not even heard his voice on the tape of a conversation that he did not recall. Nor would there have been anything wrong had he taken part, as this was a conversation about daily prayers and about fasting.

“If you want to tape, then do so. If you want to imprison us for daily prayers, you can do so at any moment. Plant bugs in our cell – you won’t hear other conversations. You won’t hear that I called on people to kill somebody, that I called to seize [power], incited to hatred”. Krosh also dismissed the claim in the indictment that he was against other faiths, that he had tried to set people against others. He lived in an area where there were no other Muslims, and he was friendly with all his neighbours.

Ekrem Krosh during his final address Photo Crimean Solidarity

During his final address, Osman Abdurazakov noted that the men were not on trial for real actions, but for their active civic stand. “For refusing to be silent seeing the lawlessness of the regime against our people”.

Russia’s illegal persecution of Ukrainian Muslims on ‘Hizb ut-Tahrir’ charges began in 2015, with the ‘trials’ swiftly turning into a weapon against the Crimean Solidarity human rights movement and Crimean Tatar civic journalists and activists in general. A huge percentage of the civic journalists who ensured that the world knew about the repression underway in occupied Crimea have themselves been arrested and are either serving or facing huge sentences on these same flawed charges. This is the second ‘Dzhankoi group trial’, with the first six Crimean Tatars including Crimean Solidarity journalist Vilen Temerianov, Enver Krosh – a civic activist (and brother of Ekrem Krosh) and Edem Bekirov, Osman Abdurazakov’s brother.

The tragedy of all of these cases, and the courage of those Crimean Solidarity activists and journalists who refuse to be silenced, are seen in the fact that guilty verdicts and huge sentences are essentially guaranteed from the moment that armed and masked men burst into peaceful, law-abiding Crimean Muslims’ homes. The above sentences will, of course, be appealed, although ‘judges’ at the Vlasikha military court of appeal have thus far proven no less willing to take part in imprisoning men who have committed no crime.

PLEASE WRITE TO THE MEN!

The letters tell them they are not forgotten and show Moscow that its persecution of innocent men is not going unnoticed. 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.

Sample letter

Привет,

Желаю Вам крепкого здоровья и надеюсь, Вы скоро вернетесь домой, к своим родным. Простите, что мало пишу – мне трудно писать по-русски, но мы все о Вас помним.

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

Osman Abdurazakov