At least 55 Crimeans transferred to Russian prisons in 2 years – CrimeaSOS

Russia has transferred at least 55 Crimeans to prisons and penal colonies in Russia since February 2022.

Source: Yevhen Yaroshenko, analyst from the human rights organisation Crimea.SOS; Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty)

Details: Yaroshenko said that neither relatives nor lawyers are able to visit some of the Crimean prisoners held in Russia due to the remote location of the prisons where they are kept (for example, in Chelyabinsk and Krasnoyarsk oblasts of the Russian Federation).

For example, Arsen Abkhairov, a defendant in the Crimean Muslims case, was transferred to a strict-regime colony in Buryatia on 18 January.

Yaroshenko says that Abkhairov and 106 other Ukrainian citizens in Russian-occupied Crimea have been unlawfully prosecuted on charges of actions that are not a crime under Ukrainian law.

Background: On 27 July 2023, Russian authorities detained at least 13 Crimean Tatars near the building of the Russian-founded Supreme Court of Crimea in the occupied city of  Simferopol, Crimea. They gathered there because of the hearing to consider the appeal in the case of Nariman Dzhelyal and the Akhtemov brothers; journalist Lutfie Zudieva was among the detained Crimean Tatars.

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