Bilyal Adilov, a Crimean Tatar and father of six children, sentenced
to 14 years in prison, was transferred to the penal colony No. 1 in
the city of Kyzyl, Republic of Tyva. He informed about this in a
letter to his family, but there is still no official confirmation of
the transfer, according to representatives of the Crimea Platform.
The wife of the political prisoner, Gulnara Adilova, said that on
August 23, her husband informed her about the preparations for the
transfer, but did not know where exactly he would be sent. Later, on
August 27, he took part in the cassation court hearing while in SIZO-1
in Kyzyl. Since then, communication with him has been cut off, and no
new messages have been received.
In early September, Gulnara started writing letters to the colony,
contacting the reception and the duty department of the regional
department of the Federal Penitentiary Service, but she never received
an official response about her husband’s whereabouts. Only on October
23, the family found out about his whereabouts – Adilov sent a short
message to his daughter, indicating that he had been transferred to
the colony.
“Two months of uncertainty and futile appeals… We have appealed to
all the authorities advised by lawyers, but there is still no response
from them,” – Gulnara Adilova noted.
She also said that she had filed applications with the regional human
rights ombudsman and the prosecutor’s office, but had not received any
response, either by regular mail or by e-mail. After receiving the
letter, the family sent Adilov a response, but it is unknown whether
he received it.
As a reminder, on March 27, 2019, Russian security forces conducted
massive searches in 26 homes of Crimean Tatars in the occupied
territory of Crimea. As a result, 20 people were detained and accused
of having ties with the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization banned in Russia.
On March 28, three more Crimean Tatar activists were detained and
their homes searched in their absence. All 23 detainees were taken
into custody, and the court imposed a pre-trial restraint in the form
of detention. Later, all the defendants in the case had their
detention period repeatedly extended. On May 12, the Southern District
Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced the defendants in the Hizb
ut-Tahrir case, including Tofik Abdulgaziev, Vladlen Abdulkadyrov,
Izzet Abdullayev, Medzhit Abdurakhmanov and Bilal Adilov.