65-year-old Seitkhalil Fakhriyev and his 36-year-old son, Ruslan, have not been seen since the night of 15 to 16 November when Russian enforcement officers burst into their home and took them away. Seeing the treatment meted out to her husband and son was so distressing that Aishe Fakhriyeva became unwell and is in a serious condition in hospital.
News of this latest abduction came on 19 November from the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. The Mejlis reported that, although nothing is known of the men’s whereabouts, certain information from Crimea suggests that the Russians are planning to charge Seitkhalil Fakhriyev (b. 1965) and Ruslan Fakhriyev (b. 1989) under Article 205 of Russia’s criminal code. Although the article of the code is entitled ‘acts of terrorism’, the charge is frequently used about allegedly thwarted plans to commit acts of terrorism. Such allegations of planned acts of terrorism are most often backed by ‘confessions’ obtained from men or women held incommunicado, without access to independent lawyers. Material ‘evidence’ backing these or similar accusations tends to be of similar quality, with the grenade claimed to have been found in Ukrainian journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko’s car having no fingerprints on it, and not fitting in the place it had supposedly been hidden. This, and countless other examples of falsified evidence, as well as retractions of ‘confessions’, as obtained through torture, are standardly ignored by Russian or Russian occupation ‘courts’, with convictions and long sentences essentially guaranteed.
The Mejlis explains that Seitkhalil Fakhriyev’s family returned to Crimea from enforced exile, probably in Uzbekistan, during the 1990s (after Ukraine gained independence). Seitkhalil and Aishe, together with their children, live in a village where they “are known as extremely caring and good people”, the Mejlis stresses.
It is unclear why they have been targeted, but the Mejlis are, unfortunately, right in assuming that the FSB are holding them incommunicado while using torture to extract ‘confessions’. We know of such methods both from formed political prisoners, as well as from those courageous Crimean Tatars who have publicly spoken of the methods the FSB used to try to get them to give false testimony against political prisoners.
The FSB’s methods have become increasingly brazen since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Many Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians have been seized in occupied Crimea and held incommunicado for up to two years. Both men and women are targeted, with the FSB still not having confirmed holding Anatoliy Kobzar, who disappeared on 5 March 2024, nor Sakha Manhubi, a young mother, who was taken prisoner in November 2024, nor many others.
The FSB also frequent target two or more members of the same family as victims of abductions or of politically motivated trials. Three years after seizing a prominent Crimean Tatar historian’s two elder sons – Seitumer Seitumerov (1988) and Osman Seitumerov (b. 1992), as well as their maternal uncle Rustem Seitmemetov (b. 1973), the FSB came for the third and last son, bdulmedzhit Seitumerov (b. 1999). There are a huge number of other cases where two or three brothers are imprisoned, as well as at least one other where the victims included Enver Omerov (b. 1961) and his son, Risa Omerov (b. 1988).
Oleh Platonov and Natalia Poliukh were seized in April 2025, with their child taken from school and placed in care.
Niyara Ersmambetova, who is 38 and a mother of two, has been held incommunicado since May 2025. She was seized by the FSB just seven days after the funeral of her mother and has been imprisoned ever since, with her 16-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter now with their grandfather, who is 70 and has Grade II disability status.
42-year-old Victoria Strilets and her 25-year-old daughter Oleksandra Strilets were sentenced to 12 years on 5 August 2025, on surreal ‘treason’ charges. Oleksandra was accused essentially over photos posted on Messenger. She has two very small children, Solomya, who is four years old, and a six-month-old daughter Lera, who was born very small and was, at least in August 2025, still in an incubator, unable to breathe by herself.
See also:
Lera Dzhemilova
Ismail Shemshedinov
Tamara Chernukha
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
Serhiy Hrishchenkov
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
