On Wednesday, November 1, the occupiers kidnapped for the second time a resident of Novooleksiivka, Crimean Tatar, 57-year-old businessman Khalil Kurtametov.
It is known that Russian security forces conducted an illegal search of the man, during which he was planted with documentation related to the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion. In addition, among the papers that were found on him was the document Creation of a Center for the provision of administrative services in the village of Novooleksiivka, where the Crimean Tatar Resource Center is indicated. Although public hearings on this topic were held even before the occupation of the Kherson region.
As a result, Khalil Kurtametov was accused of participating in the battalion, although he had no connections with it. He is currently being held in Novotroyitsk.
According to the CTRC, Khalil Kurtametov was an ordinary businessman and owned the Ai-Petri hotel on the Arabat Spit, which was repressed by the occupiers after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The man did not even have any pages on social networks and did not publish anything related to the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The CTRC has already repeatedly recorded cases of detention of Crimean Tatar businessmen in order to seize their property.
We remind you that on January 8, 2023, early in the morning, the occupiers kidnapped two residents of Henichesk, Khalil Kurtametov and his brother Ridvan. In February, Khalil Kurtametov returned home.
Earlier, in October 2022, the Kyiv district court of occupied Crimea arrested the son of Khalil Kurtametov, Apaz Kurtametov. He is suspected of financing a terrorist organization under Art. 208 part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to investigators, he lent 500 hryvnias to his friend, who, as Appaz learned after making a money transfer, serves in the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion. In April 2023, the guy was sentenced to 7 years in prison.