Niyara Ersmambetova is turning 38 on 3 October 2023 in a SIZO, or remand prison, in occupied Crimea. The Crimean Tatar mother of two is facing mystery ‘treason’ charges, with the only tragic certainty being a ‘conviction’ and huge sentence.
Niyara was seized by the FSB just seven days after the funeral of her mother and has been imprisoned ever since. Her 16-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter are now with their grandfather, who is 70 and has Grade II disability status. It was Niyara, working as a chemist, who had provided for the entire family.
Citing the Crimean human rights initiative Irade, Crimean Tribunal reported in July 2025 that Niyara Ersmambetova had been in SIZO No. 1 in Simferopol for at least two and a half months. The charges of ‘treason’ under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code had been laid back in May 2025.
The human rights activists had learned that Niyara was accused of collaboration with one of the resistance movements in occupied Crimea. It was claimed that she had passed on the makeup of fuels and lubricants, with this purportedly aimed at subsequent strikes.
Crimean Process wrote that this was at least the thirtieth ‘arrest’ on charges either of ‘treason’ or of planning acts of sabotage in occupied Crimea just in the previous six months. “Considering the mass nature of detentions; the widespread use of torture; the lack of access to independent lawyers and the closed nature of the trials on such charges, the grounds for the accusation seem dubious. In this case, there are indications of illegal deprivation of liberty which are considered war crimes.”
This view is clearly shared by the authoritative Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project. The secrecy around Ersmambetova’s ‘arrest’ and the charges against her make it difficult for Memorial to apply its normal criteria for recognizing political prisoners. They have, however, added her to their list of people whose prosecution is very likely politically motivated.
It is not only in this case that the actions of the Russian FSB or other enforcement bodies are more akin to enforced disappearances, than to arrests. Two other Crimean Tatars – 28-year-old Lera Dzhemilova and 29-year-old Ismail Shemshedinov, who had recently become a father – were both abducted and held for months incommunicado before being sentenced to 15 and 13 years, respectively, during ‘trials’ behind closed doors.
There has been a massive increase in ‘trials’ and huge sentences on ‘treason’ charges since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as well as in ‘spying’ charges if the person does not have Russian citizenship. Russia has made it impossible to live on occupied territory without taking a Russian passport, so such ‘spying trials’ are very often used against civilians abducted from territory that fell under Russian occupation soon after the full-scale invasion.
The number of women abducted and then ‘tried’ on such charges has also risen sharply on all occupied territory since 2022, with Russia demonstratively showing that nobody is safe from persecution, with that in many cases including women, or couples, with young children. .
See also:
Lera Dzhemilova
Victoria Strilets and her daughter Oleksandr Strilets; Oleksandr Osadchy
Oleh Platonov and Natalia Poliukh
Russian FSB abduct Crimean couple, place their child in care
Tamara Chernukha
Oksana Senedzhuk Russia rubberstamps 15-year ‘treason’ sentence against 58-year-old Crimean activist Oksana Senedzhuk
Liudmyla Kolesnikova Russian FSB abduct Ukrainian from her mother’s funeral in occupied Crimea
Nina Tymoshenko Russia’s most savage sentence yet against 66-year-old Ukrainian woman from occupied Crimea
Ismail Shemshedinov
Vladyslav Afanasiev Crimean sentenced to 15 years for donation to rescue children from Russian-occupied territory
Ruslan Mambetov Crimean Tatar sentenced to 18 years in Russian secret ‘trial’ where only torture is near certain
Roman Hryhorian Ukrainian seized in Crimea and sentenced to 12 years for donations to Ukraine's defenders
And many others, with the number rising all the time.
