We are sincerely happy to share that the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre held a meeting with former political prisoner and First Deputy Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Nariman Dzhelyalov. This meeting is of special importance for us, because Nariman Dzhelyalov is a person who became a symbol of indestructibility and struggle for the freedom of the Crimean Tatar people.
Recall that on 3-4 September 2021, the occupation ‘authorities’ of the Russian Federation in Crimea conducted searches and detained Nariman Dzhelyalov together with four other Ukrainians. He was accused of a far-fetched ‘undermining a gas pipeline’ near Simferopol and sentenced to 17 years in a strict regime colony, with a fine of 700 thousand rubles and an additional 1 year and 6 months of restricted freedom of movement.
But in June 2024 Nariman Dzhelyalov was released as part of the exchange of political prisoners. The Crimean Tatar Resource Centre did everything possible to make this day come. We organised foreign and Ukrainian events, appealed to international organisations, governments and heads of foreign states. Nariman Dzhelyalov’s name sounded in resolutions and reports of international organisations, information to which was submitted, including by CTRC experts. We worked to keep his story on the agenda.
Today Nariman Dzhelyalov is among the nine political prisoners released by the Kremlin as part of the exchanges, but another 207 political prisoners, 134 of them Crimean Tatars, remain in Russian places of detention. We will not stop until each of them returns home. Nariman Dzhelyalov, for his part, has already become the voice of those who are still in detention.
We are waiting and ready to welcome everyone who is illegally imprisoned in Russian prisons. Our struggle continues and we will not give up until we bring all our political prisoners home!