Russia’s war against Ukraine began on 27 February 2014, with its offensive against Crimean Tatars beginning immediately afterwards. Almost eight years later, the order had changed, with Russia dropping any pretence in its persecution of Crimean Tatars six months before it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It is exactly four years since the weekend of enforced disappearances in occupied Crimea which ultimately culminated in the FSB’s seizure of Nariman Dzhelyal, Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader, human rights defender and journalist. There was widespread condemnation of such an open act of revenge just two weeks after Dzhelyal took part, together with high-ranking representatives of 45 countries, as well as the then EU President, in the inaugural meeting of the important Crimea Platform on 23 August 2021. International pressure may well have helped Ukraine to secure Dhzelyal’s release on 28 June 2024. International attention remains needed, however, as two other Crimean Tatars, civic journalist Asan Akhtemov and his cousin, Aziz Akhtemov, remain imprisoned, although their abduction, savage torture and huge sentences were directly linked with Russia’s wish to imprison Nariman Dzhelyal.
Moscow’s angry bluster had failed to stop so many high-level diplomats from attending the Crimea Platform meeting on 23 August 2021 and affirming their countries’ non-recognition of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian Crimea. Escalating repression in occupied Crimea was easier, with Dzhelyal, the highest-ranking leader of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis [representative assembly], to have not been exiled. Everything about this case demonstrated a new level of savagery and lawlessness, including the mass detentions on 4 September of Crimean Tatars, including some elderly men, violently seized while simply standing outside the FSB buildings, in the hope of finding out where the abducted men, including Dzhelyal, were being held.
Five Crimean Tatars were essentially abducted from early on 2 September 2021, to the morning of 4 September. Asan Akhtemov (b. 1989) and Aziz Akhtemov (b. 1996) were seized during the night from 3-4 September. Both were held incommunicado and prevented from seeing independent lawyers until the European Court of Human Rights [ECHR] intervened almost ten days later. The two men immediately retracted their ‘confessions’ and gave shocking accounts of the torture used to obtain this. As well as electric shocks and other physical torture, the FSB had also threatened reprisals against the men’s families.
Both Eldar Odamanov, who had disappeared after the armed search of his home earlier on 2 September, and Shevket Useinov, seized during the following night, were held incommunicado until 5 September. They were then jailed for 10 and 15 days on absurd charges, quite unrelated to the armed raids on their homes. As feared, the two latter men had been forced into ‘testifying’ against Dzhelyal and the Akhtemovs. During the men’s trial, however, both men described the illegal methods of duress that the FSB had used to obtain such ‘testimony’.
Fabricated ‘sabotage’ charges
Russia was seriously unconcerned about the optics in this case, with the alleged act of sabotage’ to a gas pipe near Perevalne having occurred on 23 August 2021, the day of the Crimea Platform meeting in Kyiv at which Dzhelyal was present The initial criminal investigation was launched under Article 167 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code (‘deliberate destruction or damage to property’. Nothing more was heard of this damage, and photos, etc. were ever made public. The gas pipe in question was not on any central circuit and could be fixed relatively easily, and painlessly, given that any disruption to gas supplies was in summer. Despite all of the above, the FSB first seized five Crimean Tatars and then came up with the claim that there had been an act of ‘sabotage’ which had been planned by Ukraine’s Military Intelligence together with the Mejlis.
No evidence
The indictment was based solely upon the above-mentioned ‘testimony’ that the men all stated was obtained through torture. The first of many escalations in the charges came immediately after the Akhtemovs ignored an open threat from the FSB and retracted their supposed ‘confessions’. As well as confirmation in court from both Odamanov and Useinov, that they had been placed under duress, there had also previously been public statements from two Crimean Tatars who found the courage to refuse to collaborate with the FSB and provide false testimony.
The men were all accused of carrying out an act of sabotage as part of an organized group (Article 281 § 2a), and of the illegal purchase, transfer or possession of explosives as part of an organized group (Article 222.1 § 4). On 8 November 2021, an additional charge was added, of smuggling an explosive device, as part of an organized group (Article 226.1 § 1); and of ‘causing considerable material damage to the Crimean gas network (to the tune of around 1,425 USD). It was even claimed that the minor damage to an obscure gas pipe constituted “an attack on the Russian Federation’s defence capabilities”.
There were also three ‘secret witnesses’, whose ‘testimony’ could not be verified. As in all such cases, no grounds were provided to justify anonymity, yet the ‘court’ not only allowed it, but also obstructed the defence from demonstrating the flaws in the supposed testimony (details here).
‘Trial’
On 21 September 2022, ‘judges’ Viktor Ivanovich Zinkov; Aleksei Viktorovich Kozyrev and Sergei Nikolaevich Pohrehniak from the Russian occupation ‘Crimean high court’ sentenced Nariman Dzhelyal to 17 years’ imprisonment; Asan Akhtemov – to 15 years; and Aziz Akhtemov to 13 years, with all in harsh-regime prison colonies. Steep fines were also imposed: 700 thousand roubles (around 9 thousand euros) in Nariman’s case, 500 thousand roubles against Asan and Aziz Akhtemov. The sentence against Dzhelyal was two years longer than that demanded by ‘prosecutors’ Roman Lobov and Anastasia Supriaga.
On 28 July 2023, ‘judges’ – Yelena Urod (presiding); German Aleksandrov and Ilona Stohniy from the Third court of appeal in Sochi essentially increased the charges against the three political prisoners. While the size of the overall sentences remained the same, the first three years of each sentence were to be in prisons, the worst of Russia’s penal institutions. All three Crimean Tatars were illegally taken to Russia in October 2023, with Dzhelyal held at a prison in Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai; Asan Akhtemov – in the Vladimir prison; and Aziz Akhtemov – in Yeniseisk, Krasnoyarsk Krai.
Asan Akhtemov (b. 5 December 1989) is now imprisoned in a maximum-security prison colony in Akhangelsk oblast, thousands of kilometres from his wife and two children. Despite an evident deterioration in his health, the prison administration are refusing to organize a medical examination.
Aziz Akhtemov, who turned 29 on 14 May this year and is also married with a small daughter, is imprisoned in the Altai region of the Russian Federation, with the distance also making even the few visits allowed difficult for his family.
PLEASE help ensure publicity for this appalling case and the plight of two young fathers, abducted, tortured and sentenced to huge terms of imprisonment as ‘props’ for Russia’s persecution of Nariman Dzhelyal.
If possible, also write to both Asan and Aziz! The letters tell them, and Moscow, that they are not forgotten. Letters, unfortunately, need to be in Russian and handwritten.
Addresses
Asan Akhtemov
165651, Архангельская область, г. Коряжма, Магистральное шоссе, д. 101, ФКУ ИК-5 УФСИН России по Архангельской области,
Ахтемову Асану Исламовичу 1989 г. р.
Aziz Akhtemov
658209, Алтайский край, г. Рубцовск, ул. Тракторная, д. 26А, ФКУ ИК-10 УФСИН России по Алтайскому краю,
Ахтемову Азизу Эскендеровичу, 1996 г. р.
