“The trouble came to every third house”
“I do not remember a single month in these nine years that would have passed without searches. This is already a permanent phenomenon in the Crimea. Perhaps a week or two before and after the New Year, when law enforcement officers, apparently, have a rest – these are the only “vacations” for the Crimean Tatars, when they can sleep peacefully, knowing that no one will definitely come to them. The rest of the time, it’s almost constant waiting… For example, my phone never turns off and never goes into sleep mode,” Crimean Tatar human rights activist Zaur Khalilov (name changed in the interests of the hero’s safety) tells The Insider.
Early in the morning on the eve of our conversation, FSB officers raided with searches a resident of the Krasnogvardeisky district, Memet Ashurov, and the family of Asan Abduramanov, a delegate to the kurultai, the national congress of the Crimean Tatars, in Bakhchisarai (he himself left Crimea several years ago). The security forces confiscated mobile phones and other equipment, Ashurov was detained and taken for interrogation to the FSB department in Simferopol, but later released. In both cases, the reason for conducting investigative actions was the damage to the railway near the village of Pochtovoye on February 23 this year. The incident, as a result of which the movement of electric trains and trains was stopped, was called a diversion by the authorities. Initially, an explosion was reported, but then a version appeared that the rails were damaged by portable welding. “In style, ruining a holiday is similar to the activities of Ukrainian fascists or those who sympathize with them. No one has canceled the waiters, saboteurs, traitors, spies, ”Leonid Ivlev, State Duma deputy from Crimea, commented on the incident in his Telegram channel . Searches on this episode have been held since the end of February at several addresses where Crimean Tatars live.
Spoiling a holiday is similar to the activities of Ukrainian fascists or those who sympathize with them
The search for "saboteurs, traitors, spies" among the indigenous population of Crimea continues throughout the nine years of Russian occupation – a significant part of it did not recognize the annexation and did not accept the new government. Crimean Tatars have always cooperated with the national-patriotic forces of Ukraine, and supporting pro-Ukrainian candidates in elections was a “value issue” for them, Alim Aliyev, co-founder of the Crimea SOS human rights organization, explains in an interview with The Insider:
“This is primarily due to historical memory – the first annexation and colonization of Crimea under Catherine II and the deportation of 1944. As a result, Crimean Tatars have become the main pro-Ukrainian force in Crimea.”
Representatives of the Crimean Tatar people make up about 13-15% of the entire population of the peninsula, that is, about 250-300 thousand people. According to Aliyev, about 70,000 people have left Crimea since 2014, more than half of them are Crimean Tatars. They left en masse in the fall of 2022, after the announcement of “partial” mobilization. According to Krym SOS, about 90% of summonses in Crimea were distributed in places densely populated by Crimean Tatars, while conscription of residents of the occupied territories is prohibited by the Geneva Convention. “The invaders deliberately send them to war against their country and their brothers, who today are fighting in sufficient numbers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” says Alim Aliyev.
Searches, interrogations, mass detentions, administrative arrests and fines, fabricated criminal cases — the current repressions against the Crimean Tatars are on a par with the persecutions of the times of Tsarist and Soviet Russia. Religious and political figures, activists, citizen journalists, and lawyers are being persecuted. Many of them are associated with the Crimean Solidarity human rights movement, established in April 2016. “Given that the Crimean Tatars are a small people with strong horizontal ties, one can say that trouble has come to every third house,” says the wife of one of the Crimean Tatar political prisoners on condition of anonymity. “Among those who are imprisoned, there are close relatives, that is, entire families are being repressed. Today, 220 minor children in Crimea are growing up without fathers.”
There are close relatives among those who are imprisoned – entire families are being repressed
There are families who have experienced more than one visit by the security forces over the years. According to the observations of another resident of Crimea, whose husband was also convicted by a Russian court, at first they behaved with restraint, “did not allow themselves rudeness, cruelty”:
“In my opinion, at that time they still did not fully understand what the FSB was and how it was necessary to “work.” Now they have plucked up arrogance and rudeness and realized that they are in power and everything is allowed to them. The second invasion of our home was much more violent. Early in the morning, more than ten people in balaclavas, with weapons, jumping over the gate, surrounded the house from all sides, shouting, banging, frightening the children and putting psychological pressure on us.”
It is fundamentally important for the occupation authorities to suppress any manifestations of solidarity, self-organization, subjectivity of the people, The Insider's interlocutors believe. Human rights activist Zaur Khalilov calls the complete restriction of freedom one of the most tangible consequences of the occupation for the Crimean Tatars. peaceful assemblies: “Any mass gatherings are either dispersed or held under the control of employees of the Center “E” < The Main Directorate for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation – The Ins.> and the FSB, who come “in civilian life” and simply disperse among the people.”
The most tangible consequence of the occupation is the complete restriction of freedom of peaceful assembly
Events on the occasion of the anniversary of the deportation on May 18 and the day of the Crimean Tatar flag on June 26 are no exception. Law enforcement agencies consider them as actions of an extremist nature and the day before they give activists "warnings about the inadmissibility of violating the law."
“We were told: recognize the accession, and you will have everything”
At the end of February 2014, when “polite people” from Russia had already landed on the peninsula, several thousand people, at the call of the Mejlis (the representative body of the Crimean Tatars), went to the building of the Crimean parliament in Simferopol for a rally in support of the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The action ended in clashes with supporters of the pro-Russian party "Russian Unity" gathered there, led by Sergei Aksenov, then a local deputy, and now the head of the annexed republic. Two people died as a result of the riots. A few weeks later, the Crimean Tatars massively boycotted the “referendum” on the annexation of Crimea to Russia (according to various estimates, from 70 to 95% of the Crimean Tatar population refused to vote), and the Mejlis refused to recognize it as legitimate.
The new Crimean authorities did not forgive the disobedience of the Mejlis. First, the prosecutor's office accused its leaders Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov of extremism and banned them from entering the peninsula, then the body was evicted from the building it occupied in Simferopol, and then the arrests began. Two deputy heads of the Mejlis were imprisoned: Akhtem Chiygoz was sentenced to eight years for organizing mass riots at a February 2014 rally, Ilmi Umerov was sentenced to two years for “public calls to violate the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.” In 2017, however, both were handed over to Turkey, allegedly in exchange for two Russians accused of espionage; later Chiygoz and Umerov moved to Kyiv. The decisive blow to the Crimean Tatar Mejlis was inflicted in April 2016, when the Supreme Court of Crimea, at the suit of the prosecutor of the republic, Natalya Poklonskaya, recognized the Mejlis as an extremist organization. Poklonskaya then accused the body of carrying out anti-Russian activities, and called its leaders "puppets in the hands of big Western puppeteers." Most members of the Mejlis left for the territory of Ukraine, today the structure continues to work in exile.
Most members of the Mejlis left for Ukraine, the structure continues to work in exile
“We were told: admit the fact of accession publicly, and you will have everything. But we are the indigenous people of Crimea… We just want to be guaranteed to participate in the management of our territory,” one of the most public leaders of the Mejlis, Nariman Dzhelal, was indignant in an interview with Kommersant in 2016. — If Russia wants to compete for the sympathy of the Crimean Tatars, then it is high time to think about such guarantees. Or you can habitually persecute people for extremism and separatism, put them in prison, but then you should not count on the desired loyalty.”
Despite the risks, Dzhelal remained in Crimea to the last, was active in public activities and maintained ties with Ukraine. In August 2021, he was the only representative of the annexed Crimea at the Crimean Platform international summit held in Kyiv. Immediately after this trip, they came for Celal. He and two other activists, brothers Asan and Aziz Akhtemov, were accused of blowing up a gas pipeline near Simferopol, as a result of which one of the local military units was left without gas supply for a day. The investigation called Dzhelal the organizer of the “sabotage” and an intermediary between the Akhmetov brothers (who allegedly planted an explosive device under the gas pipeline) and “curators” from Ukrainian intelligence. In September last year, the court sentenced Dzhelal to 17 years in a strict regime colony, and the Akhtemov brothers to 15 and 13 years, respectively. The case is called falsified. “No evidence has been presented: neither that these people did it, nor that they did it on the instructions of someone in Ukraine, and, moreover, that Nariman Dzhelal was involved in this. On the other hand, there are clear signs of pressure against the accused in the case,” explains Sergei Davidis, head of the political prisoner support program at Memorial.
“They cook things without leaving their offices”
According to human rights activists, more than 150 people have been arrested in Crimea on politically motivated charges since 2014, with the vast majority of Crimean Tatars among them. The bulk of the criminal cases are related to the activities of the Islamic religious and political party Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party). The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized it as a terrorist organization back in 2003 – without supporting its decision with any convincing evidence. The fundamentalist Hizb ut-Tahrir proclaims the creation of a worldwide Islamic caliphate as its goal, but advocates non-violent methods to achieve it. In total, according to the project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial” (created after the liquidation of the human rights center “Memorial”), over 330 people are being prosecuted under Russian law for their links with this movement, of which more than a hundred are in the annexed Crimea. None of these cases show signs of preparing terrorist attacks or voicing terrorist threats.
Over 330 people prosecuted under Russian law for ties to Hizb ut-Tahrir
In Ukraine, as in most European countries, Hizb ut-Tahrir is not banned; on legal grounds, it operated on the Crimean peninsula until 2014 – it published a newspaper and held public events. “People [in Crimea] became criminals simply because of the occupation. Thus, it turns out double lawlessness, ”comments Sergey Davidis. According to the norms of international law, Russia, as an occupying party, does not have the right to completely abolish the criminal legislation in force at the time of the beginning of the occupation and replace it with its own. The Russian state has no right to take Crimean residents into custody outside the peninsula, but this is exactly what is happening: Crimeans are sent to pre-trial detention centers and colonies thousands of kilometers from home.
The first case of participation in Hizb ut-Tahrir arose in the republic at the beginning of 2015, four residents of Sevastopol were convicted in it. The last sentence was handed down on March 15 this year: the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Ametkhan Abdulvapov, a Crimean, to 10.5 years in prison.
The accusation of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir has become a convenient tool for suppressing the civil activity of the Crimean Tatars and eliminating everyone who is disloyal to the occupation administration, The Insider's interlocutors state. In addition to actually organizing terrorist activities or participating in them (Parts 1 and 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), defendants are often also accused of preparing for a violent seizure of power (Part 1 of Article 30 and Article 278 of the Criminal Code). Dozens have already been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment – up to 19 years in a strict regime colony. “They [the security forces] kill several birds with one stone – and intimidate the people, and remove human rights activists and activists from the field, and report on how they liquidate terrorist cells and prevent coup attempts in the Russian Federation. Without leaving their offices, these cases are easily and simply cooked up,” says Crimean lawyer Ilyas Aminov (not his real name).
Suspected terrorists are tried, as a rule, in whole groups – in the largest, "second Simferopol case", initiated in the spring of 2019, 29 people are tried. One of them, 60-year-old Dzhemil Gafarov, died in February of this year in the Novocherkassk pre-trial detention center. A month before, he and four other Crimean Tatars each received 13 years of strict regime. Gafarov was a disabled person of the second group, suffered from chronic renal failure and repeatedly complained of feeling unwell, and suffered a heart attack in November last year. “Every day he got worse. He constantly burned in the heart area, his head hurt, it was hard to breathe, and he himself could no longer get up, ”Krymskaya Solidarity reported. The management of the pre-trial detention center denied the political prisoner proper treatment, although the lawyers insisted on emergency hospitalization.
Suspected "terrorists" are tried, as a rule, by whole groups
“Terrorist cases” are sewn according to one scheme: in the absence of real evidence, the prosecution is based on the testimony of classified witnesses and audio recordings obtained as a result of wiretapping of meetings of activists in private homes or mosques. “We are talking about suhbets , where Crimean Tatars gather for discussions on religious and political topics. These records are then handed over to “experts”, who, simply turning everything inside out, conclude that it was members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir who held a secret meeting,” explains Ilyas Aminov. In the role of secret witnesses, according to him, either FSB officers or recruited agents act, who themselves are under the threat of criminal prosecution and, by testifying against others, “buy” their freedom. As additional evidence, banned religious literature is also presented, which the security forces plant on the accused.
The special services managed to establish total control over mosques with the connivance of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea (DUMK), headed by Mufti Emirali Ablaev, who openly took a pro-Russian position after the annexation. According to human rights activist Zaur Khalilov, members of the SAMK council are now "people who have been checked by the security services and signed a certain document confirming that they do not participate in any opposition movements and are in fact in solidarity with the policy of the Crimean authorities." In 2016, in Kyiv, representatives of Crimean Tatar Muslim organizations announced the creation of an alternative, pro-Ukrainian, SAMK.
After the start of a full-scale war, in cases of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, the “Ukrainian trace” suddenly began to appear – now Crimean “terrorists” are credited with connections with “curators” from Kiev. So, at the end of January, six Crimean Tatars were detained in the Dzhankoy region of the peninsula, who, according to investigators, were spreading terrorist ideology and recruiting local Muslims, coordinating their actions with associates from Ukraine.
“They threatened to put a pipe into the anus, and barbed wire into it”
Along with the Russian law, Russian lawlessness has also become established in Crimea. Confessions from those accused of terrorism, sabotage, and other “crimes” are often forced through threats, torture, and bullying. In the same way, the security forces, apparently, recruit informants and persuade future "secret witnesses" to cooperate.
The Insider talked to one of the victims of the arbitrariness of the Crimean security forces – a programmer from the Nizhnegorsk region Rinat Paralamov. According to him, he was never a civil activist, but he was not inactive either – he went to courts, participated in fundraising to pay fines. In September 2017, FSB operatives came to him with a search, and then they put a bag over his head and handcuffed him, put him in a car and brought him to some kind of basement. They beat him, demanded to slander people he did not know, and then they began torturing him. They wrapped their arms up to the elbows and legs up to the knees with adhesive tape, laid them face down on the floor, exposed their buttocks, attached two wires to them, and started a discharge. Paralamov recalls that there were three such “approaches”:
“At some point I lost consciousness. They splashed water on my face, I came to my senses, but my mouth would not close and I could not speak – I only made sounds. I was scared, so were they."
«Человек в военной форме» и женщина-врач осмотрели Рината и сделали ему несколько уколов. Однако мучители пришли к выводу, что он симулирует приступ, и продолжили пытки током.
«Я думал уже, что мне конец, и начал молиться. Но они вдруг остановились и опять попытались заставить меня говорить. Стали угрожать, что поставят меня на колени, засунут в задний проход трубу, а в нее — колючую проволоку. В общем, стали пугать, что подвергнут меня насилию и что с моими родителями, женой и братьями тоже что-то сделают. Тогда я дал знак, что подпишу всё, что надо подписать. Мне дали кучу бумаг, в том числе несколько чистых листов, на которых я просто внизу поставил подпись».
После этого Параламова отвели в другую комнату, сняли с него маску и заставили рассказать на видеокамеру, как в 2014 году он нашел в лесополосе тротил, патроны и провода к ним и закопал всё это в Марьиной роще недалеко от Симферополя. В одной из подписанных бумаг он признавался также, что связан с «Хизб ут-Тахрир» и «встречал в мечети таких-то людей». Силовики сообщили, что отныне он работает на них: «Будешь ходить среди своих соотечественников, где что услышишь — передашь нам». В противном случае пригрозили использовать против него подписанные протоколы, «а это десятки лет тюрьмы».
Ринат Параламов провел в руках фээсэбэшников больше суток. Добившись своего, они высадили его на автовокзале и велели никому не рассказывать о случившемся. Однако, оправившись от шока, он всё же связался с адвокатами и решил придать эту историю огласке, но прежде из соображений безопасности перебрался с семьей в Киев. Его крымские защитники пытались добиться возбуждения уголовного дела по факту пыток, но получили отказ — ничего противоправного в действиях сотрудников силовых структур не нашли. Зато самого Параламова объявили в розыск по обвинению в незаконном хранении взрывчатых веществ и боеприпасов. Как и многие крымские татары, он надеется на скорую деоккупацию полуострова:
«Как только Россия, с божьей помощью, уберется оттуда, сразу вернусь домой».
Похожим образом выбивали признательные показания из Асана Ахтемова, осужденного по упомянутому выше делу о «диверсии на газопроводе». Поздно вечером в начале сентября 2021 года в его дом ворвалось около десяти вооруженных человек в масках. Не предъявив никаких документов, надели на него наручники, закрыли глаза и увезли. Подробный рассказ Ахтемова о его пребывании в подвале ФСБ опубликовало украинское издание «Ґрати»:
«Завели в комнату, посадили на стул лицом к спинке стула, ноги привязали к ножкам стула скотчем, руки тоже привязали скотчем к спинке. Когда меня вели, со стороны этих людей в мой адрес постоянно поступали угрозы, что мне подкинут оружие и наркотики, говорили что моя жена красивая и намекали, что ей тоже могут причинить вред.
После того, как меня посадили на стул и связали, на мои уши повесили оголенные провода, после чего я почувствовал сильный удар током. По времени это продолжалось секунд десять. И так около шести-семи раз. После чего разряды тока пускали понемногу и одновременно со мной разговаривали. Когда пускали ток, меня постоянно дергало. После этого я согласился со всем, что мне эти люди говорили. А говорили мне они о том, что я подорвал газовую трубу в Перевальном, что мой брат Азиз Ахтемов всё уже рассказал, что им всё известно, как мы это сделали».
Ахтемова, как и Рината Параламова, заставили на камеру произнести заранее заготовленный текст, а затем доставили в управление ФСБ в Симферополе, где допросили уже официально. По утверждению активиста, при пытках в подвале присутствовал адвокат по назначению Олег Глушко, который уговаривал его подчиниться требованиям силовиков и признать вину. В какой-то момент Ахтемов не выдержал и обратился к нему с вопросом: «Как вы можете допускать такое, вы же адвокат?» Тот ответил, что это «стандартная процедура». Позднее защита Ахтемова подала на Глушко жалобу, указав несколько эпизодов, по которым он грубо нарушил законодательство об адвокатской деятельности и кодекс профессиональной этики. После целой череды отказов Совет Адвокатской палаты Крыма всё же возбудил в отношении Глушко дисциплинарное производство, но ожидаемо не нашел в его действиях нарушений. Как рассказал The Insider правозащитник Заур Халилов, этот человек тесно сотрудничает с ФСБ и часто фигурирует в крымских политических делах; он был, например, соучастником пыток активиста «Крымской солидарности» Раима Айвазова.
Еще один способ устрашения активной части крымского общества — насильственные исчезновения «несогласных» и их родственников. На сегодняшний день, по сведениям организации «Крым SOS», 15 человек, преимущественно представители крымскотатарской общины, числятся пропавшими без вести в результате похищения. По словам адвоката Ильяса Аминова, следствие по этим делам не ведется и есть основания полагать, что к исчезновению людей причастны российские силовые структуры или другие «агенты государства».
15 крымчан числятся пропавшими без вести в результате похищения
Одним из самых резонансных стало похищение 31-летнего перспективного политика из Бахчисарая Эрвина Ибрагимова. 25 мая 2016 года он планировал поехать на очередной суд по политическому делу, но накануне вечером его машину нашли брошенной посреди дороги. Камеры видеонаблюдения зафиксировали , как люди в форме сотрудников ДПС заблокировали автомобиль Ибрагимова, силой затолкали его в микроавтобус и увезли. Видеозапись передали в правоохранительные органы, по факту похищения возбудили уголовное дело, но расследование так и не сдвинулось с мертвой точки, а в 2017 году и вовсе было приостановлено. Отец Ибрагимова убежден, что за похищением Эрвина стоят российские спецслужбы. «Сотрудники ФСБ до похищения интересовались, занимался ли он боксом. Еще один пытался его завербовать, склонить работать на них. Эрвин ему отказал, а тот сказал с угрозой: “Не забывай, что у тебя есть брат с сестрой“. И теперь сделайте выводы, на кого я могу думать», — цитировал Ибрагимова-старшего «Крым.Реалии».
Более восьми лет неизвестна и судьба Исляма Джеппарова и Джевдета Ислямова, сына и племянника активиста крымско-татарского национального движения Абдурешита Джеппарова. В сентябре 2014 года они шли по тротуару в поселке компактного проживания крымских татар под Белогорском, когда несколько человек схватили их и затащили в автомобиль с тонированными стеклами. Очевидец произошедшего рассказал, что похитители были одеты в черную униформу с планками на спине. Вместе с родителями других похищенных Абдурешит Джеппаров создал Контактную группу по правам человека в Крыму, которая собирает информацию о правонарушениях в отношении жителей полуострова.