On 8 October, Crimean Tatar leader and Putin’s political prisoner Nariman Dzhelyal’s lawyers found out that he had been covertly transferred to a psychiatric clinic against his will. Earlier, Mr. Dzhelyal refused to undergo a psychiatric evaluation since there are no grounds for it.
Nariman Dzhelyal’s lawyer Nikolai Polozov sees the detective’s decision to hold the expertise as a punitive practice to suppress the prisoner’s will and aggravate his detention conditions.
This practice is nothing new to the Russian Themis; it traces back to Soviet times, and is making a resurgence in Putin's Russia.


“There is a mess here (id est total lawlessness). If you get in the way of nurses or doctors way, you are doomed. They will pump you with medicine, sanitation workers will beat you and not let you use the restroom. All the politicians stay silent, so you keep quiet, too. No will for living, for fighting remains. Only one thing is left: not to forget what you have seen here, not to become embittered, and not to give up,” wrote Pliushch three years following his release.Indeed, the conditions in a psychiatric clinic where Nariman Dzhelyal is to stay, will do no good to him. This decision will be appealed by Mr. Dzhelyal’s lawyers. Dzhelyal, the Deputy Head of the Mejlis, was detained in Pervomayskoye village of Simferopol region of Crimea on 4 September for trumped-up sabotage charges. Dzhelyal’s lawyer Emine Avamilyeva commented that her client was subjected to psychological pressure. Namely, following the arrest, he endured many hours in a basement, handcuffed, and with a bag over his head. Allegedly, Mr Dzhelyal is involved in the explosion in a gas pipeline in Perevalne village near Simferopol on 23 August.
How Crimean Tatar leader Dzhelyal swelled the ranks of Ukrainian “saboteurs”
These particular accusations are not an accident. By likening Ukrainians to saboteurs, Putin aims at intimidating the population of Russia and Crimea.
Crimea Platform – mere formality or workable mechanism to recover Ukraine’s peninsula?The persecution of Nariman Dzhelyal is part of Russia’s systemic attack on the Crimean Tatar people, ethnic Muslims, and indigenous people on the peninsula, who put up the primary resistance to Moscow’s occupation since 2014. The means of attacks vary, with arbitrary imprisonment being one of the most common ones.
As of today, 127 Crimeans are imprisoned in the peninsula or Russia on political, national, and religious grounds.
Related:
- Will the Crimea Platform help Ukraine return Russia-occupied peninsula?
- Jailing innocent Crimean Tatars to insanely huge terms: a how-to guide from Russia
- Russia tried to break the Crimean Tatars. Their non-violent resistance only grew stronger.
- Torture and imprisonment is the price of freedom of speech in Russia-occupied Crimea
- “Hell. Despair. The feeling of absurdity.” Ukrainian journalist jailed in occupied Crimea describes FSB torture in harrowing letters
- Seven years of occupation of Crimea: human rights activists systematise human rights violations on peninsula
- “I do not want my children to live in a country of terror.” Four inspiring letters from Crimean Tatar political prisoners not broken by Russia
- Russia’s vile attempts to discredit the Crimean Tatars must not be kept silent
- Pull off a kangaroo court in five easy steps: a how-to guide from Russia
- Photo project spotlights Crimean Tatar kids born after their fathers’ unlawful arrests by Russian occupation authorities
- Russian prison system is a ticking time bomb for health of a Crimean Tatar
- Painkillers instead of hospital: Russia’s torture of critically-ill Crimean Tatar political prisoners continues unabated