Medication which could spell the difference between life and death for Crimean Solidarity civic journalist and political prisoner Amet Suleimanov has been returned to his wife, with no explanation, just the words “not allowed”. Why, when Russia’s penal service does not provide proper medical care, it should prevent a political prisoner’s family from doing so, is unclear. The refusal has, however, come soon after Russian ‘courts’ allowed appeals by the prosecutor against the release of two other political prisoners: Lenur Khalilov, who is suffering from cancer, and Oleksandr Sizikov, who is blind. Fears that Russia’s withdrawal from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture at the end of September 2025 would remove any last restraints were probably justified. At least as far as Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners are concerned, Russia has dropped any pretence. It is not even complying with its own legislation as all three political prisoners have conditions on Russia’s own list of illnesses and disability which precluded imprisonment.
Russian pretence with respect to Amet Suleimanov has long been minimal, with the political prisoner’s life in very real danger. Lilia Liumanova first reported late in October that her husband’s blood pressure was constantly too high and that he had a haematoma on his leg which his doctor in Crimea fears could indicate a blood clot. All of this is particularly serious given the second hypertensive crisis which Suleimanov suffered in early July 2025, when his blood pressure reached 210. The medication that has now been returned was clearly aimed at protecting his health, especially given the very serious conditions which should have prevented Suleimanov ever being imprisoned at all.
Amet Suleimanov (b. 1984) suffers from chronic rheumatic heart disease, aortic insufficiency, coronary artery disease and third level mitral valve prolapse. He urgently needs a heart valve transplant, yet his wife learned in October 2024 that he had been removed from the waiting list for this.
Suleimanov was arrested on 11 March 2020, together with the two elder sons of a prominent Crimean Tatar historian – Seitumer Seitumerov (1988) and Osman Seitumerov (b. 1992), as well as their maternal uncle Rustem Seitmemetov (b. 1973). The FSB had clearly marked out their targets according to journalist or civic activist activities, and appear to have only understood, during Suleimanov’s arrest, that he would not survive detention. He was the first of Russia’s Crimean political prisoners to be ‘only’ placed under house arrest, with this continuing until after the appeal hearing against his 12-year sentence. It now seems likely, however, that the FSB were merely concerned that Suleimanov should not die before they got their conviction. Up till now, all those involved in Suleimanov’s persecution, from enforcement officers to judges and prison staff, have seemed concerned solely with ensuring that they were not held to account. This was evident with the ‘medical commission’ which, in March 2024, ignored the findings of specialists set out in the same report, and claimed that Suleimanov had no illnesses that precluded detention. More details about the commission and the member who told Suleimanov that he would be released 20 minutes before death here.
Since Russia’s arrests on 10 March 2020 have resulted in one near certain death sentence and three other huge terms of imprisonment, it is worth stressing that noen of the men was accused of any actual crime. The men were charged with a modern Russian version of the accusation during Stalin’s Terror used as an excuse for executing the two Seitumerov brothers’ great-grandfather. Stalin’s regime called it ‘counter-revolutionary terrorist propaganda’. The Russian occupation regime uses a suspiciously secretive and deeply flawed Supreme Court ruling from 2003 to imprison men on ‘terrorism’ charges. The ruling declared the peaceful pan-Muslim Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which is legal in Ukraine and not known to have committed acts of terror anywhere in the world, ‘terrorist’. Russia has been using this ruling, suspect ‘experts’ and so-called ‘secret witnesses’ since 2016 in occupied Crimea as a weapon of repression, especially against Crimean Tatar civic journalists and activists.
Seitumer Seitumerov was charged under the more serious Article 205.5 § 1 of Russia’s criminal code with ‘organizing a Hizb ut-Tahrir group’, while his brother, uncle and Suleimanov were charged with ‘involvement’ in this entirely unproven ‘group’, under Article 205.5 § 2. All of the men were also accused of ‘planning a violent uprising’ (Article 278) although even the FSB admitted that not one of them was suspected of actions or direct plans to commit any action aimed at ‘overthrowing the Russian constitutional order’
Despite deeply flawed charges and non-existent evidence, prosecutor Yevgeny Nadolinsky demanded horrific sentences against all four men, including 13 years in the case of Suleimanov (whom he had previously tried to get remanded in custody). On 29 October 2021, three ‘judges’ from the Southern District Military Court in Rostov (Russia) - Igor Kostin (presiding judge); Roman Plisko and Yevgeny Zviagin – largely obliged, sentencing Seitumer Seitumerov to 17 years; Osman Seitumerov to 14 years; Rustem Seitmemetov to 13 years and Amet Suleimanov to 12 years. All of these sentences are for the worst of Russian penal institutions, with the first 3.5 years to be spent in a prison, the harshest of Russia’s penal institutions. The sentences were, nonetheless, upheld by ‘judge’ Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Mordovin and two colleagues from the Military Court of Appeal in Vlasikha (Moscow region) on 9 February 2023.
As well as multiple calls from the UN General Assembly, OSCE, the EU and other bodies to release all Ukrainian political prisoners, Russia has ignored an important interim decision issued by the United Nations Committee against Torture [CAT] on 22 February 2023. CAT called on Russia to abstain from implementing Suleimanov’s 12-year prison sentence since this would likely result in his death. It asked Russia to ensure that Suleimanov received a comprehensive medical examination in a specialized medical facility and that he underwent heart surgery and/or treatment in accordance with the results of the examination.
All of this has been openly flouted, although Russia’s withdrawal from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture does not absolve it from its obligations to CAT and under other international legislation.
You can help!
Russia’s criminal procedure code specifically envisages contact between prisoners and the diplomatic representative offices and consular departments of their country in the Russian Federation. Since Ukraine has had no diplomatic relations with Russia since the latter’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian political prisoners are entitled to contact “with the representative offices or consular institutions of countries which have taken it upon themselves to defend [the prisoner’s] interests, or with inter-state bodies engaged in the defence of such prisoners”.
If you are from or living in an EU country, the USA, Canada or other democratic countries, please ask your foreign ministry to consider playing such a role. It could save Amet Suleimanov’s life.
Please also write letters!
These, unfortunately, need to be in Russian, handwritten, and on ‘safe’ subjects
Address (which can be in Russian or English)
600020 Россия, Владимирская обл., Владимир, Большая Нижегородская ул., 67,
ФКУ Т-2 "Владимирский централ"
Сулейманову, Амету Рефатовичу, г.р. 1984
Or in English
600020 Russia, Vladimir oblast, Vladimir 67 Bolshaya Nizhegorodskaya St, Prison No. 2 ‘Vladimir Central’
Suleimanov, Amet Refatovich, b. 1984
