Russia’s Second cassation court of general jurisdiction cases has rejected Lutfiye Zudiyeva’s cassation appeal against her inclusion by the Russian justice ministry in its notorious register of so-called ‘foreign agents’. Russia is deploying all weapons to silence the courageous Crimean Tatar human rights defender and journalist, and it cannot be said that any other outcome was seriously expected. The lawlessness was, however, even more extreme than usual with Lutfiye’s lawyer arriving for the hearing only to be told that it had been held earlier than scheduled, behind closed doors, with the justice ministry’s decision upheld.
The ‘hearing’ took place on 19 March however it was only a month later, and on the lawyer’s second attempt and she and Lutfiye were able to receive a copy of the ruling. Lutfiye’s application to take part by video link had been rejected, with the court claiming that no object grounds had been given for why the human rights defender and mother of four should come from occupied Crimea to Moscow. The court also pointed out that her presence was not mandatory but failed to warn her that it would also speed up the hearing, thus preventing her lawyer from taking part. Quite the contrary, with the ruling claiming that neither Lutfiye Zudiyeva nor her lawyer had “appeared”. The one hearing, which was over before its scheduled commencement at 10.30 a.m., took place behind closed doors, before presiding ‘judge’ Yelena Regina and two colleagues, Yury Denisov and Yelena Karpacheva.
As reported, the Russian justice ministry announced that Lutfiye Zudiyeva had been added to its ever-increasing register of alleged ‘foreign agents’ on 16 May 2025. It claimed that the renowned human rights defender and Graty journalist had “circulated false information about decisions taken by the public authorities of the Russian Federation and the policies they carry out”; that she was “under foreign influence” and “involved in political activities.”
An appeal was lodged immediately, with this rejected on 11 August 2025 by ‘judge’ Iryna Kozlova from the Zamoskvoretsky district court in Moscow. On that occasion, Lutfiye’s application to participate by video link from Dzhankoi, in occupied Crimea, “got held up” in the Russian postal system, however her legal representative was able to take part, and present Lutfiye’s written objections. These were, predictably, ignored, as they were in the cassation court’s secretive hearing on 19 March 2026.
The claims that have now been upheld by two Russian ‘courts’ were that there was proof of Lutfiye Zudiyeva being ‘under foreign influence’ in her publications in the independent Ukrainian publication Graty, in her commentary to the media and international organizations, as well as her supposed ‘membership’ of Frontline Defenders. There would be nothing at all illegal about such membership, but it is a figment of some Russian ministry official’s imagination. Frontline Defenders have spoken out in Lutfiye’s defence, but so have many other human rights organizations, diplomats and journalists.
Another bizarre claim which none of the ‘judges’ found the courage to question was that Lutfiye Zudiyeva had received money from foreign sources. To justify this totally false claim, reference was made to money for day-to-day needs which Lutfiye’s husband had transferred to her account. He in turn is involved in selling agricultural goods and, according to the FSB, received money between February and August 2024, from three ‘foreign nationals’ (from Ukraine, Germany and Vietnam). In her written statement for the appeal, Lutfiye explained that in each of those cases, the person had had dual citizenship, with this something her husband could scarcely have known, as he had no right to demand a passport from buyers. She also disputed the Russian ministry’s claim that her human rights work and journalism were ‘political activities’.
Lutfiye has told Graty that she will be lodging an appeal with Russia’s supreme court, with this highlighting both procedural infringements and the lack of any justification for the Russian justice ministry’s decision to label her a ‘foreign agent’.
Russia’s persecution of journalists and civic activists from the Crimean Solidarity human rights movement has been ferocious, and a very large number of them have been imprisoned on absurd charges for up to 19 years. Russia’s persecution of Lutfiye Zudiyeva began in 2019, two months after Russia’s worst offensive to date against Crimean Solidarity with the arrests and subsequent huge sentences against 25 Crimean Tatar civic journalists and activists. On 30 May 2019, Lutfiye was detained, together with Mumine Saliyeva, another Crimean Solidarity human rights activist and wife of political prisoner Seiran Saliyev. On that occasion, Lutfiye was held prisoner for several hours, with lawyers prevented from seeing her. She was then brought before an occupation ‘court’ and fined over three Facebook posts which she had nothing to do with, but which somebody else had tagged her on when posting five years earlier.
On 27 July 2023, Zudiyeva and another journalist were illegally detained, together with 12 other Crimean Tatars for trying to attend a purportedly open court hearing into the appeal against the appalling sentences passed on Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader, journalist and human rights defender Nariman Dzhelyal and two cousins, Asan and Aziz Akhtemov. She was fined on a preposterous charge of having taken part in an unauthorized mass event, with the occupation ‘judge’, like the Russian-controlled ‘police’, ignoring the fact that she had been there as a journalist.
On 22 February 2024, armed Russian enforcement officers burst into Zudiyeva’s home in Dzhankoi, carried out a search for which they did not have a proper warrant, and took Lutfiye to the Simferopol department of the ‘centre for countering extremism’ where two administrative charges were laid. These were over three posts on Facebook. In two of them, the journalist had mentioned or posted material mentioning Radio Liberty without indicating that this has been forcibly registered as a so-called ‘foreign agent’ in Russia and on occupied territory. In the third text, The earliest of the posts dated back to 10 January 2021It and reported on various measures throughout local Crimean Tatar communities in support of three political prisoners – Enver Omerov (then 59), his son Riza Omerov and Aider Dzhapparov. The second, posted on 16 February 2022, reported the internationally condemned sentence against Vladyslav Yesypenko, a Ukrainian freelance journalist who was seized, tortured and then ‘sentenced’ to 6 years on surreal charges while carrying out work in occupied Crimea for Crimean Realities. The third was from 6 August 2022 and was about Russia’s offensive against three Crimean Tatar lawyers, all involved in defending Crimean Tatar political prisoners - Lilia Hemedzhy; her husband Rustem Kyamilev and Nazim Sheikhmambetov.
The charges and ‘convictions’ were surreal, with Lutfiye fined, for example, over something called ‘abuse of freedom of mass information’ under Article 13.15 § 2.1 of Russia’s administrative code. The so-called abuse was purportedly because a post on her Facebook page had not mentioned that Russia calls Radio Liberty a ‘foreign agent’.
The Crimean occupation office of Russia’s justice ministry was swift to begin persecuting Lutfiye in connection with the ‘foreign agent’ label. On 27 August 2025, administrative charges were laid under Article 19.34 § 1 of Russia’s code of administrative offences (‘infringement on regulations for the activities of a foreign agent’. The hearing into that administrative prosecution took place on 15 September 2025, with ‘judge’ Yelena Petrovna Nikolaeva from the occupation ‘Dzhankoi district court’ fining Lutfiye Zudiyeva 30 thousand roubles. During the hearing, Lutfiye stated: “I view the present administrative protocol and the hearing as a continuation of the pressure which has been placed on me over several years because of my civic and information activities. I cover violations of other people’s human rights. They want only one thing from me – quite simply, that I stop talking about this. For me that is impossible since, in the first instance, this is linked with my personal convictions.” She added that her work as a journalist and human rights defender were prompted by her inner voice, her conscience.
“I cannot calmly sit and watch as the multiple searches which take place all the time in Crimea result in children being deprived of their fathers; in elderly parents being left without their children, without care, and in women remaining without their husbands. I believe that it is my right to have the possibility of speaking publicly about this. And this is the least I can do as a member of society.”
