"They think they are calming us down with detentions, but they are deeply mistaken." The phenomenon of mass detentions under the Crimean courts

Міла Олександрова
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10:51, 10 November
Image source: Кримська солідарність

Mass detentions in the courts in Crimea began immediately after the detention of the Deputy Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Nariman Jelal, and the brothers Aziz and Asan Akhtemov. Then, on September 4, after searches in the Crimea, about 50 people were detained under the FSB building in Simferopol. As a result, 58 administrative protocols were drawn up under the article "Failure to comply with the rules of conduct in an emergency or the threat of its occurrence" (Article 20.6.1 of the Administrative Code).

Lawyer Lilya Gemedzhi explains: the first "bells" that due to the gathering of listeners in the Crimean and Rostov courts began during the verdict of the participants of the Red Guard "Hizb ut-Tahrir case", November 3, 2020.

"The first thing they noticed was the presence of people near the courts, it was a verdict to the Red Guard group, when people during the verdict, in front of the Crimean garrison military court, in a park on the KIPU, staged such a flash mob or action, standing in white vests themselves expressed their disagreement with the sentences. Then, as far as I remember, no one was detained. But from this point it is worth counting, because after that they began to gradually squeeze out of the university. If at first there were attempts, the head of security service of university, some other employees approached constantly that people have no right to be there, have no right to remove, and even there was such when we, with Emine Avamileva (the Crimean lawyer - the editor) , gave interviews, approached us, interrupted this interview ".


Source: Crimean Solidarity / Lily Gemedzhi

Gemedzhi says that one of the official versions was the news of the mass murder in the Kazan gymnasium in May 2021.

"After the shooters who were in Kazan, as an additional argument, they are not allowed to enter the KIPU territory at all. No one was allowed in, except for lawyers and witnesses, and it was necessary to agree in advance on the lists of witnesses who were to go to the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and so on. After that, people began to gather in front of KIPU. If it was an ordinary meeting, then no one paid attention, well, people are standing and standing. But people attracted attention, I know, many students were interested in why they stand, what is the problem, teachers also paid attention. There was such an unusual information campaign, when people with their presence made other people interested in what was happening. For the first time, people were detained not near the court, but near the FSB building. But this was not the first detention near the FSB, it was back when…. sought. When Nariman Jelal was detained, everything was quite a mass detention near the FSB. And then they decided to use this practice. People came to key sentences, appeals, meetings. This was used for the first time on appeals against the Krasnogvardeyskaya group, the verdict of Bakhchisaray, and these key meetings became the subject of detentions. But I noticed that not even at key meetings, police officers are on duty now and control the process of finding relatives near the courts".

Russian special services began detaining journalists in court. One of the detainees during the appeal against the Red Guard group "Hizb ut-Tahrir", October 25, 2021, a correspondent of the Russian newspaper "Grani.Ru", Zidane Adzhikelyamov was detained in the line of duty. The operative video of the detention shows that the correspondent worked with a press card, in a signal vest with the inscription "PRESS", he explains that he had an editorial task to film and during the detention, he said that the journalist.

"I stayed in the ward for about 12 hours, later I was taken to a temporary detention center. I spent the night there: it was very cold in the isolator. There are absolutely unacceptable conditions for keeping people. In addition, force was used against me during my detention, although I did not resist. That's why I don't really understand why I had to turn my left arm. " Adjikelyamov assesses the behavior of Russian security forces as interference and obstruction of his journalistic activities. He intends to file a complaint against the actions of Russian law enforcement officers after the appeal. Despite the fact that the Central District Court closed the administrative proceedings in his case, the journalist explains: “My colleague, who was detained with me at the same time, we both performed our professional duties and had the same set of documents at the time. detention on hand, his court found him guilty of an administrative offense and imposed a fine. I don't really understand the logic of such decisions and I don't consider them legal".


Zidane Adzhikelyamov

Later, on October 29, under the same Crimean garrison court, during regular detentions, law enforcement officers detained a group of women for the first time. One of them, the wife of the participant of the third Bakhchisaray "Hizb ut-Tahrir case", Amet Suleymanov, Lilya Lyumanova, who came to the meeting as a listener, tells how it happened:

"We are with a group of women from the 3rd Bakhchisaray group, the 29th was the verdict of our boys, but we naturally decided to support the wives and mothers of the Red Guard group. We arrived at the courthouse, did not violate, stood 1.5 meters between us. I published a photo, everything shows that they were in masks. We came to support the girls, especially since the meeting was open, there was a guarantee that we might even get to court. Later, a big car with the Rosguard arrived, and they just scattered all over the lane. Then it was clear that they would take everyone. Since I was standing, it turns out, they started with me, he even tried to grab me by the elbow, I told him rudely: "Do not touch with your hands!" In our country, according to Islam, a stranger has no right to touch at all. We were asked to go to the bus, we passed, with us was the child of Seitumer Seitumerov, his son Suleiman. I don't know what they played there, they said "Baby - Grandma", I heard this conversation. We had one pregnant, one insulin-dependent and one minor girl with us. The lawyer was not allowed in for a long time, then he was allowed to visit us. At first there was a caveat, ie. they allegedly warned us not to do so, but then said that we would also sign the protocols. There was a team, because the policemen who went here and there did not understand what would happen next. That is. they wrote us warnings and disappeared. Later it became clear that the protocol will still be. Now I have an administrator, the protocol was written out, 20.6.1, this is a violation of the mask regime".


Lily Lumanova

Lily says that she considers herself innocent, like other detained women, and intends to prove her innocence in court proceedings:

"We are well aware that this is another lever of pressure, because they are warped and worried about all our solidarity, all our support. However, they think that by such detentions they calm us down, but they are deeply mistaken. We know how the backlash effect goes. Here, my husband, on October 29, was given 12 years of strict regime. And this will not stop me, I went to the courts to support my compatriots, and I will go. It's like a backlash. Moreover, when we faced it personally, it affected us all”, - the woman said.

A Crimean court has issued administrative decisions against Crimean Tatar activists detained on October 25 by Russian security forces near the court building in Simferopol. The total amount of fines is 170 thousand rubles. This is the first total amount of fines reported in the Crimean Solidarity public initiative. Crimean Tatars were fined for this amount only on October 25. In total, four mass detentions of people were recorded in the occupied Crimea, followed by administrative reports.