26 June marks the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. On this day, it is important to recall that since 2014, the Russians have used large-scale practice of torture and cruel treatment of civilians in Crimea.
Thus, the first victim of the Russian occupiers in Crimea was Reshat Ametov. 10 years ago, on 3 March 2014, Reshat Ametov was kidnapped by people in camouflage uniforms in the centre of Simferopol, where he was holding a solitary picket against the occupation of Crimea.
His body was found on 15 March in a field with stab wounds in the area of the left eye and other numerous body injuries. His head was tied with duct tape, his hands were handcuffed. He was left with three young children.
In the same year, student Edem Asanov was found hanged with massive body injuries. Due to threats of reprisals against his sister, his parents were afraid to publicise information about the torture and violent murder of their son.
According to the CTRC, torture was applied to at least 24 persons: Raim Ayvazov, Ervin Ibragimov, Renat Paralamov, Vladislav Yesipenko, Server Rasilchak, Alexander Steshenko, Akhtem Mustafayev, Yevgen Panov, Aleksey Shestakovich, Remzi Bekirov, Osman Arifmemetov, Vladlen Abdulkadyrov, Abdula Ibragimov, Fakhri Muratov, Nabi Rakhimov, Kurtumer Chalgozov, Nariman Ametov, Nariman Dzhelyalov, Asan and Aziz Akhtemov, Ruslan Abdurakhmanov, Yaroslav Zhuk, Oleg Prikhodko and Enver Krosh.
The occupants imitated shooting, threatened with death, electrocuted, beaten, strangled with bags, put bags on their heads, and even recorded a case of murder.
Along with torture, cases of ill-treatment of political prisoners during detention, in pre-trial detention centres and colonies are systematically recorded. Political prisoners are systematically placed in SHIZOs and special blocks, where conditions are much worse, and complaints of political prisoners about the conditions of detention, violation of their rights, in particular, the failure to provide adequate medical care, are systematically ignored.
Unfortunately, impunity and the insufficient and untimely response of the international community have led to the progression of the scale of these atrocities, which have spread to the newly occupied territories of Ukraine and manifested themselves with even greater cruelty.
Thus, according to the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre, at least 8 torture facilities were recorded in the newly occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. In these places, the Russian occupants keep the pro-Ukrainian population in inhuman conditions. They interrogate these people, treat them cruelly and torture them.
According to the information of the CTRC, the occupants constantly hold “preventive talks”, as it was, in particular, in the case of the basement of the school No. 17 in Genichesk. There, people are forced to shout “Putin is the president of the world, and Zelensky is a h@ilo”, otherwise they use force and can be taken to an unknown destination. It is known that there are even people who have undergone this “re-education”, but then managed to leave.
In general, a number of categories of torture and ill-treatment can be identified:
– Forcible abduction, followed by physical abuse, up to and including murder;
– Torture and ill-treatment in Russian pre-trial detention facilities, colonies and prisons;
– Failure to provide timely and qualified medical care in Russian pre-trial detention centres, colonies and prisons;
– Illegal transfer of political prisoners, when a person is placed in a narrow cage in a 60*60 cm car and transported from Crimea to the territory of Russia. During the journey, which is 12 hours, there is no stop for a person to go to the toilet;
– Mass detentions of people, keeping them in specially equipped cellars for so-called re-education;
– Forcible militarisation of children. Children are also induced to support Russia’s war crime against Ukraine.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Centre strongly condemns such actions of the Russian Federation and calls on the world to increase pressure on the occupying state to preserve the lives of Crimean Tatars and the pro-Ukrainian population of the peninsula.