A Moscow-backed court in Crimea extended the pre-trial detention period of the Deputy Chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis Nariman Dzhelal, and the Akhtemov brothers for almost three months.
Crimean Tatar political prisoners Nariman Dzhelal, Aziz Akhtemov and Asan Akhtemov will continue to be held captive by Russian occupation authorities until January 23, 2022.
The so-called ‘Kyivsy District Court’ in Simferopol (Aqmescit) made the decision on October 28, upon the request of Russian security forces, as the Crimean Solidarity NGO reported on Facebook.
Nariman Dzhelal According to reports, the so-called court held a closed hearing without the presence of Dzhelal, who was forcibly held in a psychiatry clinic.
“This is a predictable decision of so-called ‘Kyiv District Court of Simferopol’ to extend the detention of Nariman Dzhelal, brothers Asan & Aziz Akhtemov until January 23, 2022,” Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar wrote on Twitter.
She emphasized that Russia must release all illegally detained, convicted citizens of Ukraine in temporarily occupied Crimea.
Armed searches and abductions in occupied Crimea
As reported, The Russian FSB (federal security service) carried out a new wave of armed searches in occupied Crimea on September 3-4, with the five Crimean Tatars taken away in cars without number plates including Nariman Dzhelal, First Deputy Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Eldar Odamanov, Aziz Akhmetov, Asan Akhmetov and Shevket Useinov.
Their exact whereabouts became known only on the third day following what Ukraine insists was an extrajudicial detention, or “abduction.”
Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (self-governing body) Nariman Dzhelal was detained after the illegal searches in his house on September 4.
False cases and illegal detentions
On September 6, the so-called Kyivsky District Court of Simferopol ruled to detain Nariman Dzhelal, and brothers Aziz and Asan Akhtemovs for two months, until November 4.
They were charged with sabotage – the damaging of a gas pipeline that fed one of the Russian military bases in Simferopol (Aqmescit) district.
Russia's oppression of Crimean Tatars
The FSB claims Ukraine’s behind the attack stands Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence, with the involvement of the Crimean Tatars’ representative body, Mejlis. It alleges that the Akhtemov brothers as "immediate executors of the attack", naming Dzhelal as their "accomplice."
Nariman Dzhelal and Aziz & Asan Akhtemov brothers
Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzheppar said that Russia's activities are revenge for Crimean Tatars' participation in the inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform on August 23.
