The occupation Kyiv District Court of Akmesdzhit (Simferopol) has illegally extended the preventive measure for another three months for four Crimean Tatars: Esma Nimetulaeva, Elviza Aliyeva, Fevzie Osmanova, and Nasiba Saidova. The women will continue to be held in pretrial detention until at least March 14. This was reported by journalist and human rights activist Lutfie Zudieva for the publication “Grati.”
According to her, the hearing was again held behind closed doors, and relatives had to wait in the pouring rain. The “court” allowed only one representative from each detainee’s family to enter, except for Nasiba Saidova’s relatives: her mother, Dinara Iyupova, was not even allowed to hear the verdict, despite her resistance and attempts to at least see her daughter from a distance as she was being led out of the police van.
As Zudieva notes, “judge” Mikhail Belousov considered the motions for all four at the same time. The Crimean Tatar women were kept in handcuffs in a “fishbowl” (a transparent glass booth) the entire time.
Fevzie Osmanova’s mother, Elianora Osmanova, described the atmosphere in the courtroom:
“We went in. Of course, we couldn’t hold back and started crying. They scolded us, wanted us to be silent — just stand there like statues. But our tears gave us away, we could hardly hold back. The girls smiled, tried to smile — we are proud of them,” Zudieva quoted Fevzie Osmanova’s mother, Elianora Osmanova.
It should be noted that the occupiers accuse four women allegedly for involvement in the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organization banned in Russia. This is the first case in Crimea involving women in the “Hizb ut-Tahrir case.”
Esma Nimetulaeva is the mother of five minor daughters, a resident of Bakhchisaray, and the wife of political prisoner Remzi Nimetulaev, who was arrested in 2023. Elviza Alieva is a four-year student at Crimean Federal University, originally from the village of Dolinnoe of Bakhchisaray district. Nasiba Saidova is the daughter of a well-known imam in Crimea and a teacher at a kindergarten in Kholmovka. Fevziye Osmanova lives in the village of Orlovka in the Sevastopol district and works in a shop.
On October 16, the so-called Kyiv District Court of Akmesdzhit (Simferopol) decided to take four Crimean Tatar women into custody: Esma Nimetulaeva, Nasiba Saidova, Elviza Alieva, and Fevzie Osmanova.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center condemns the persecution of Crimean Tatars and considers it a continuation of a systematic policy of intimidation directed against Muslims in Crimea.