After the occupation of Crimea by the rf, detentions and arrests of people have become a regularly occurring practice. Unfortunately, political prisoners in Russian places of detention have to go through a real hell. After all, conditions in pre-trial detention centers and colonies are extremely bad, Russians violate the rights of political prisoners brutally, torture and threaten them.
Some political prisoners, so to speak, managed to escape from this hell and return to Ukraine in the frame of exchanges. So, for the entire period of the occupation of Crimea there have been returned:
- Gennadiy Afanasyev, who was previously sentenced to 7 years in a strict regime colony. The man was detained on May 10, 2014, and on June 14, 2016 was returned to Ukraine under the exchange. In total, he stayed in the pre-trial detention center for 2 years.
- Akhtem Chiygoz, who was previously sentenced to 8 years in prison. The man was detained on January 29, 2015, and on October 25, 2017 was released and handed over to Turkey. In total, he stayed in the pre-trial detention center for 2 years and 11 months.
- Ilmi Umerov, who was previously sentenced to 2 years in a penal colony. The man was detained on May 12, 2016, but released on his own recognizance and handed over to Turkey on October 25, 2017. He was under compulsory psychiatric evaluation for 21 days from August 18 to September 7, 2017.
- Oleg Sentsov, who was previously sentenced to 20 years in prison. The man was detained on May 10, 2014, and released as part of the exchange on September 7, 2019. In total, he stayed in the pre-trial detention center for 5 years and 3 months.
- Alexander Kolchenko, who was previously sentenced to 10 years in prison. The man was detained on May 10, 2014, and released as part of the exchange on September 7, 2019. In total, he stayed in the pre-trial detention center for 5 years and 3 months.
- Yevgen Panov, who was previously sentenced to 8 years in a strict regime colony. The man was detained on August 7, 2016, and on September 7, 2019 was released as part of the exchange. In total, he stayed in the pre-trial detention center for 3 years and 1 month.
- Volodymyr Balukh, who was previously sentenced to 3 years and 7 months. The man was detained on December 8, 2016, and on September 7, 2019 was released as part of the exchange. In total, he stayed in the pre-trial detention center for 2 years and 9 months.
- Edem Bekirov, who was previously sentenced to 7 years in prison. The man was detained on December 12, 2018, and released as part of the exchange on September 7, 2019. In total, he stayed in the pre-trial detention center for 9 months.
These exchanges were the result of tremendous work of state authorities, public organizations, human rights defenders, activists and, of course, relatives of political prisoners.
Five years have passed since the last exchange. The number of political prisoners is rapidly growing. According to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, 320 political prisoners and those prosecuted in criminal “cases” for the period of occupation of Crimea have been recorded, 217 of them are the representatives of the Crimean Tatar people. Now there are 194 people in the FSB walls, 134 of them are Crimean Tatars.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center continues its active work at the local, national and international levels to draw attention to the criminal actions of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied Crimea, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions.
This policy of the Russian Federation is a demonstration of the struggle against freedom of speech and belief, as well as religious and political beliefs of people in the occupied territories.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center demands the immediate release of all political prisoners.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center calls on the international community to increase pressure on the Russian Federation and the occupation authorities of Crimea to stop political persecution, as well as to apply personal sanctions against those involved in human rights violations in the temporarily occupied territories.