Russian authorities in Crimea have intensified persecution of Crimean
Tatars, under various pretexts and with the apparent goal of completely
silencing dissent on the peninsula, Human Rights Watch said today.
Crimean Tatars are a Muslim ethnic minority indigenous to the Crimean
Peninsula. Many openly oppose Russia’s occupation, which began in 2014.
“Russian authorities in Crimea have relentlessly persecuted Crimean Tatars for their vocal opposition to Russia’s occupation since it began in 2014,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “They have portrayed politically active Crimean Tatars as extremists and terrorists, forced many into exile, and ensured that those who choose to stay never feel safe to speak their mind.”
Since Russia’s occupation began, Russian authorities and their proxies have subjected members of Crimean Tatar community and their supporters, including journalists, bloggers, activists, and others to harassment, intimidation, threats, intrusive and unlawful searches of their homes, physical attacks, and enforced disappearances. Complaints lodged with authorities are not investigated effectively. Russia has banned Crimean Tatar media and organizations that criticized Russia’s actions in Crimea, including disbanding and proscribing the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar self-governing highest executive body.
In October 2017, Human Rights Watch researchers in Crimea documented criminal prosecutions for separatism against Crimean Tatars who had criticized Russia’s actions in Crimea, as well as new and ongoing baseless terrorism-related prosecutions. Researchers also documented detention and fines for Crimean Tatars who peacefully staged single-person pickets to protest the arrest and prosecution of other Tatars. Under Russian law people who want to picket individually are not required to seek official permission.
Since 2015, Russian authorities have arrested at least 26 people on charges of involvement with the Islamist movement Hizb ut-Tahrir, banned as a terrorist organization in Russia since 2003 but not proscribed in Ukraine, nor in most of Europe. They were arrested on charges of participating in or organizing a terrorist group, solely for acts – often in private – of expression, assembly, opinion, or religious and political belief that the Russian authorities claim constitute affiliation with Hizb ut-Tahrir. They face from five years to life in prison. The arrests are consistent with Russia’s practice of cracking down on Muslims who preach and study Islam outside official guidelines.
In several cases, Russian police and security services ill-treated people suspected or accused of separatist, extremist, or terrorist activities and denied them due process. In one case, a former detainee said security agents beat him and gave him electric shocks to coerce him to become an informant.
In October, Russian authorities brought separatism charges against Suleiman Kadyrov, a Crimean Tatar activist, for posting a comment on social media criticizing the occupation of Crimea. The charges came several weeks after a Russian court convicted a Crimean Tatar leader, Ilmi Umerov, on separatism charges stemming from a media interview in which he criticized Russian actions in Crimea, and sentenced him to two years in prison.
In September, a Russian court in Crimea sentenced another prominent Crimean Tatar leader, Akhtem Chiygoz, to eight years in prison on bogus charges of organizing “mass riots.”
On October 25, after negotiations between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Russian authorities allowed Chiygoz and Umerov to leave Crimea for Turkey. On October 27, they arrived in Kyiv.
Under international law, the Russian Federation is an occupying power in Crimea as it exercises effective control without the consent of the government of Ukraine, and there has been no legally recognized transfer of sovereignty to Russia.
On September 25, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine released its first report on the human rights situation in Crimea, concluding that it “has significantly deteriorated under Russian occupation.”
Russian authorities, and their proxies, should immediately stop persecution of Crimean Tatars including under the pretext of combating terrorism and extremism, cease all unjustified interference with freedom of association and assembly in Crimea, and ensure prompt, effective, and impartial investigations into all allegations of abuses perpetrated by law-enforcement against Crimean Tatars. Russian and Ukrainian authorities should ensure unfettered access to Crimea for independent human rights groups as well as humanitarian and intergovernmental organizations.
The UN Human Rights Office, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the Council of Europe should continue to document and publicly report on the human rights situation in Crimea and urge Russian authorities to address both ongoing and past abuses. Russia’s international partners, including the European Union and its member states, Turkey, and the US should continue to call for the release of detained Crimean Tatar activists and for an end to the harassment and arbitrary actions against the Crimean Tatar community.
“It is good news that Chiygoz and Umerov are no longer at risk, but it’s also outrageous that they have had to go into exile to bring their ordeal to an end, and that others in Crimea remain incarcerated,” Williamson said. “Russia’s international partners need to press the Kremlin and Crimean authorities end the persecution of the Crimean Tatar community.”
Human Rights Watch researchers spoke with Crimean Tatar leaders and family members, lawyers, journalists, and others in Crimea in late October in the cities of Simferopol, Krasnogvardeyskoe, Belogorsk, and Yalta. Interviewees received no compensation and were fully informed of the purpose of the interview and on how Human Rights Watch would use the information they provided.
Bakhchysarai- October 11, 2017
On October 11, 2017, at about 6 a.m., FSB agents searched the homes of six Crimean Tatars in Bakhchysarai, a city in central Crimea. They did not present a warrant.
After the searches, the authorities arrested Timur Ibragimov, Memet Belyalov, Server Zekeryayev, Seyran Saliyev, Ernest Ametov, and Marlen (Suleyman) Asanov, all of whom a court sent to pretrial custody for two months pending the investigation. Crimea SOS reported that Asanov was eventually charged with allegedly organizing a Hizb-ut-Tahrir “terrorist” cell, and the other five men, with alleged involvement in it. All deny the charges.
Zair Smedlyaev, a Crimean Tatar leader and a member of Kurultai, the elected council of the Crimean Tatar community, who monitored the developments around the searches, told Human Rights Watch that some of those subjected to the searches are devout Muslims and that all are also outspoken critics of Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
Emil Kurbedinov, a lawyer representing Asanov, told Human Rights Watch that during Asanov’s initial interrogation, the authorities claimed that he was involved in “anti-Russian” activities. On October 25, the authorities formally charged him with organizing a “terrorist cell” in Bakhchysarai.
Authorities committed several procedural violations in the arrests and searches. Two lawyers told Human Rights Watch that they were unable to observe the searches because security services and riot police blocked off the area and denied them entry, even after they said they were there to represent their clients. Kurbedinov said the authorities failed to present the necessary arrest and other procedural documents in a timely manner.
Alexey Ladin, another lawyer representing one of the detainees, told media that during interrogations, the security officials claimed the criminal charges were based on two audio recordings of conversations between those arrested. He said the conversations concerned various interpretations of the Quran and other religious topics, but none related to violence or any other criminal activity.
Kurbedinov said that Asanov is a successful businessman and an active supporter of a group called Crimea Solidarity. Created in 2016, the group includes Crimean Tatar activists, family members, lawyers, and human rights defenders and supports Crimean Tatars persecuted by the authorities. Kurbedinov said that Asanov on several occasions provided a venue for the group’s meetings.
Nizhnegorskiy
Renat Paralamov is a Crimean Tatar who worked as a trader at a local market in Nizhnegorskiy. In September, security services detained him on suspicion of involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir and allegedly tortured him to coerce him into becoming an informant. On September 13, 2017, a group of masked men in Nizhnegorskiy searched the house where he lived with his family. They said that they needed to search for “weapons and drugs.” During the search, they seized Paralamov’s laptop and tablet, as well as his mother-in-law’s book on Islam.
After the search, the men put Paralamov in a van and drove off.
For more than 24 hours, his family and lawyer had no contact with him or information about his whereabouts. Paralamov’s lawyer and a group of activists called and visited police and FSB departments in Nizhnegorskiy and Simferopol asking about him, but got no answers as to his whereabouts or even a confirmation of his arrest. On the morning of September 14, a policeman told Paralamov’s family and friends, who had gathered outside a Nizhnegorskiy police station, that the local FSB department had released Paralamov the day before, but that he “voluntarily” went back to “provide further answers” to the authorities’ questions.
At around about 12:30 pm on September 14, Paralamov called his family from a bus station in Simferopol. He said he had been badly beaten, and was shaken and unable to walk. Paralamov’s family took him to a hospital in Simferopol to document his injuries, which included multiple hematomas and bruises.
At the end of September, Paralamov managed to leave Crimea with his family. After he arrived in Kyiv, he spent 15 days in a hospital to get treatment for his injuries.
During a news conference in Kyiv in early November, Paralamov described his detention and torture. He said that after the FSB took him to the station, they put a bag over his head, put tape over his mouth, and tortured him with electric shocks. They also punched him in the chest and hit him on the back of his head. When he asked for a lawyer, an FSB agent punched him in the chest and told him, “I’m your lawyer.”
Paralamov said the FSB agents asked him about his involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir and demanded that he become an informant, attend Crimean Tatars’ gatherings, collect information, and pass it on to the authorities. They also forced him to sign a document claiming that he left the FSB station in Simferopol on September 13 and voluntarily returned to confess to involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir and that he voluntarily agreed to “cooperate” with the FSB.
Paralamov said that the next day, the authorities took him to a forest, where they made him repeat his confession on camera. The authorities told Paralamov that if he cooperated, he would get a three-year conditional sentence rather than real prison time and told him to not use a Crimean lawyer but the lawyer that they would provide.
Yalta
On February 11, 2016, the FSB searched 11 homes of Crimean Tatars in Yalta and surrounding towns. Edem Semedlyaev, a lawyer representing one of the suspects, said that law-enforcement officials knocked down doors and broke windows in several houses.
Following house searches, the FSB detained 14 people. Ten were released the next day and four were arrested: Emir-Usein Kuku, Enver Bekirov, and Vadim Siruk on suspicion of participating in Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Muslim Aliev for allegedly organizing a local Hizb ut-Tahrir cell. All are also charged under article 278 of the Russian Criminal Code for actions directed at the “violent takeover of power”. Two months later, police in Yalta arrested two other men, Refat Alimov and Arsen Dzhepparov, for alleged participation as well. All six have been in custody awaiting trial since their arrest.
In October 2016, prison doctors, saying they were assessing the six detainees’ mental health condition, questioned them about their religious practices and political views. Because all six refused to answer, they were forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital in November 2016 for three to four weeks for evaluation. The authorities said they found no problems with the men’s mental health and that they were therefore accountable for their actions.
Family members of one of those in custody, Aliev, told Human Rights Watch that at about 7 a.m. on February 11, about 10 heavily armed and masked men came to search the house. The men did not present a search warrant or any identification and refused Aliev’s request for a lawyer. They forced Aliev, who did not resist, to lie on the floor face down in front of his wife and children and told the family that they were looking for weapons and prohibited literature. They brought two witnesses for the search. When Aliev’s wife asked if they could invite neighbors to witness the search instead, the armed men refused.
The men behaved aggressively toward Aliev’s wife and children. One asked Aliev’s 12-year-old son: “Who do you want to be when you grow up? Do you want to be like us and take down people like your father?” One of the men picked up the Quran from the table and threw it on the floor. When Aliev’s wife attempted to pick it up, the man kicked it away.
During the search, the authorities seized three bags of books, including children’s books, as well as Aliev’s computer and cell phone. They eventually returned the books and the computer.
“Russian authorities in Crimea have relentlessly persecuted Crimean Tatars for their vocal opposition to Russia’s occupation since it began in 2014,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “They have portrayed politically active Crimean Tatars as extremists and terrorists, forced many into exile, and ensured that those who choose to stay never feel safe to speak their mind.”
Since Russia’s occupation began, Russian authorities and their proxies have subjected members of Crimean Tatar community and their supporters, including journalists, bloggers, activists, and others to harassment, intimidation, threats, intrusive and unlawful searches of their homes, physical attacks, and enforced disappearances. Complaints lodged with authorities are not investigated effectively. Russia has banned Crimean Tatar media and organizations that criticized Russia’s actions in Crimea, including disbanding and proscribing the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar self-governing highest executive body.
In October 2017, Human Rights Watch researchers in Crimea documented criminal prosecutions for separatism against Crimean Tatars who had criticized Russia’s actions in Crimea, as well as new and ongoing baseless terrorism-related prosecutions. Researchers also documented detention and fines for Crimean Tatars who peacefully staged single-person pickets to protest the arrest and prosecution of other Tatars. Under Russian law people who want to picket individually are not required to seek official permission.
Since 2015, Russian authorities have arrested at least 26 people on charges of involvement with the Islamist movement Hizb ut-Tahrir, banned as a terrorist organization in Russia since 2003 but not proscribed in Ukraine, nor in most of Europe. They were arrested on charges of participating in or organizing a terrorist group, solely for acts – often in private – of expression, assembly, opinion, or religious and political belief that the Russian authorities claim constitute affiliation with Hizb ut-Tahrir. They face from five years to life in prison. The arrests are consistent with Russia’s practice of cracking down on Muslims who preach and study Islam outside official guidelines.
In several cases, Russian police and security services ill-treated people suspected or accused of separatist, extremist, or terrorist activities and denied them due process. In one case, a former detainee said security agents beat him and gave him electric shocks to coerce him to become an informant.
In October, Russian authorities brought separatism charges against Suleiman Kadyrov, a Crimean Tatar activist, for posting a comment on social media criticizing the occupation of Crimea. The charges came several weeks after a Russian court convicted a Crimean Tatar leader, Ilmi Umerov, on separatism charges stemming from a media interview in which he criticized Russian actions in Crimea, and sentenced him to two years in prison.
In September, a Russian court in Crimea sentenced another prominent Crimean Tatar leader, Akhtem Chiygoz, to eight years in prison on bogus charges of organizing “mass riots.”
On October 25, after negotiations between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Russian authorities allowed Chiygoz and Umerov to leave Crimea for Turkey. On October 27, they arrived in Kyiv.
Under international law, the Russian Federation is an occupying power in Crimea as it exercises effective control without the consent of the government of Ukraine, and there has been no legally recognized transfer of sovereignty to Russia.
On September 25, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine released its first report on the human rights situation in Crimea, concluding that it “has significantly deteriorated under Russian occupation.”
Russian authorities, and their proxies, should immediately stop persecution of Crimean Tatars including under the pretext of combating terrorism and extremism, cease all unjustified interference with freedom of association and assembly in Crimea, and ensure prompt, effective, and impartial investigations into all allegations of abuses perpetrated by law-enforcement against Crimean Tatars. Russian and Ukrainian authorities should ensure unfettered access to Crimea for independent human rights groups as well as humanitarian and intergovernmental organizations.
The UN Human Rights Office, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the Council of Europe should continue to document and publicly report on the human rights situation in Crimea and urge Russian authorities to address both ongoing and past abuses. Russia’s international partners, including the European Union and its member states, Turkey, and the US should continue to call for the release of detained Crimean Tatar activists and for an end to the harassment and arbitrary actions against the Crimean Tatar community.
“It is good news that Chiygoz and Umerov are no longer at risk, but it’s also outrageous that they have had to go into exile to bring their ordeal to an end, and that others in Crimea remain incarcerated,” Williamson said. “Russia’s international partners need to press the Kremlin and Crimean authorities end the persecution of the Crimean Tatar community.”
Human Rights Watch researchers spoke with Crimean Tatar leaders and family members, lawyers, journalists, and others in Crimea in late October in the cities of Simferopol, Krasnogvardeyskoe, Belogorsk, and Yalta. Interviewees received no compensation and were fully informed of the purpose of the interview and on how Human Rights Watch would use the information they provided.
Bakhchysarai- October 11, 2017
On October 11, 2017, at about 6 a.m., FSB agents searched the homes of six Crimean Tatars in Bakhchysarai, a city in central Crimea. They did not present a warrant.
After the searches, the authorities arrested Timur Ibragimov, Memet Belyalov, Server Zekeryayev, Seyran Saliyev, Ernest Ametov, and Marlen (Suleyman) Asanov, all of whom a court sent to pretrial custody for two months pending the investigation. Crimea SOS reported that Asanov was eventually charged with allegedly organizing a Hizb-ut-Tahrir “terrorist” cell, and the other five men, with alleged involvement in it. All deny the charges.
Zair Smedlyaev, a Crimean Tatar leader and a member of Kurultai, the elected council of the Crimean Tatar community, who monitored the developments around the searches, told Human Rights Watch that some of those subjected to the searches are devout Muslims and that all are also outspoken critics of Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
Emil Kurbedinov, a lawyer representing Asanov, told Human Rights Watch that during Asanov’s initial interrogation, the authorities claimed that he was involved in “anti-Russian” activities. On October 25, the authorities formally charged him with organizing a “terrorist cell” in Bakhchysarai.
Authorities committed several procedural violations in the arrests and searches. Two lawyers told Human Rights Watch that they were unable to observe the searches because security services and riot police blocked off the area and denied them entry, even after they said they were there to represent their clients. Kurbedinov said the authorities failed to present the necessary arrest and other procedural documents in a timely manner.
Alexey Ladin, another lawyer representing one of the detainees, told media that during interrogations, the security officials claimed the criminal charges were based on two audio recordings of conversations between those arrested. He said the conversations concerned various interpretations of the Quran and other religious topics, but none related to violence or any other criminal activity.
Kurbedinov said that Asanov is a successful businessman and an active supporter of a group called Crimea Solidarity. Created in 2016, the group includes Crimean Tatar activists, family members, lawyers, and human rights defenders and supports Crimean Tatars persecuted by the authorities. Kurbedinov said that Asanov on several occasions provided a venue for the group’s meetings.
Nizhnegorskiy
Renat Paralamov is a Crimean Tatar who worked as a trader at a local market in Nizhnegorskiy. In September, security services detained him on suspicion of involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir and allegedly tortured him to coerce him into becoming an informant. On September 13, 2017, a group of masked men in Nizhnegorskiy searched the house where he lived with his family. They said that they needed to search for “weapons and drugs.” During the search, they seized Paralamov’s laptop and tablet, as well as his mother-in-law’s book on Islam.
After the search, the men put Paralamov in a van and drove off.
For more than 24 hours, his family and lawyer had no contact with him or information about his whereabouts. Paralamov’s lawyer and a group of activists called and visited police and FSB departments in Nizhnegorskiy and Simferopol asking about him, but got no answers as to his whereabouts or even a confirmation of his arrest. On the morning of September 14, a policeman told Paralamov’s family and friends, who had gathered outside a Nizhnegorskiy police station, that the local FSB department had released Paralamov the day before, but that he “voluntarily” went back to “provide further answers” to the authorities’ questions.
At around about 12:30 pm on September 14, Paralamov called his family from a bus station in Simferopol. He said he had been badly beaten, and was shaken and unable to walk. Paralamov’s family took him to a hospital in Simferopol to document his injuries, which included multiple hematomas and bruises.
At the end of September, Paralamov managed to leave Crimea with his family. After he arrived in Kyiv, he spent 15 days in a hospital to get treatment for his injuries.
During a news conference in Kyiv in early November, Paralamov described his detention and torture. He said that after the FSB took him to the station, they put a bag over his head, put tape over his mouth, and tortured him with electric shocks. They also punched him in the chest and hit him on the back of his head. When he asked for a lawyer, an FSB agent punched him in the chest and told him, “I’m your lawyer.”
Paralamov said the FSB agents asked him about his involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir and demanded that he become an informant, attend Crimean Tatars’ gatherings, collect information, and pass it on to the authorities. They also forced him to sign a document claiming that he left the FSB station in Simferopol on September 13 and voluntarily returned to confess to involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir and that he voluntarily agreed to “cooperate” with the FSB.
Paralamov said that the next day, the authorities took him to a forest, where they made him repeat his confession on camera. The authorities told Paralamov that if he cooperated, he would get a three-year conditional sentence rather than real prison time and told him to not use a Crimean lawyer but the lawyer that they would provide.
Yalta
On February 11, 2016, the FSB searched 11 homes of Crimean Tatars in Yalta and surrounding towns. Edem Semedlyaev, a lawyer representing one of the suspects, said that law-enforcement officials knocked down doors and broke windows in several houses.
Following house searches, the FSB detained 14 people. Ten were released the next day and four were arrested: Emir-Usein Kuku, Enver Bekirov, and Vadim Siruk on suspicion of participating in Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Muslim Aliev for allegedly organizing a local Hizb ut-Tahrir cell. All are also charged under article 278 of the Russian Criminal Code for actions directed at the “violent takeover of power”. Two months later, police in Yalta arrested two other men, Refat Alimov and Arsen Dzhepparov, for alleged participation as well. All six have been in custody awaiting trial since their arrest.
In October 2016, prison doctors, saying they were assessing the six detainees’ mental health condition, questioned them about their religious practices and political views. Because all six refused to answer, they were forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital in November 2016 for three to four weeks for evaluation. The authorities said they found no problems with the men’s mental health and that they were therefore accountable for their actions.
Family members of one of those in custody, Aliev, told Human Rights Watch that at about 7 a.m. on February 11, about 10 heavily armed and masked men came to search the house. The men did not present a search warrant or any identification and refused Aliev’s request for a lawyer. They forced Aliev, who did not resist, to lie on the floor face down in front of his wife and children and told the family that they were looking for weapons and prohibited literature. They brought two witnesses for the search. When Aliev’s wife asked if they could invite neighbors to witness the search instead, the armed men refused.
The men behaved aggressively toward Aliev’s wife and children. One asked Aliev’s 12-year-old son: “Who do you want to be when you grow up? Do you want to be like us and take down people like your father?” One of the men picked up the Quran from the table and threw it on the floor. When Aliev’s wife attempted to pick it up, the man kicked it away.
During the search, the authorities seized three bags of books, including children’s books, as well as Aliev’s computer and cell phone. They eventually returned the books and the computer.
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