Yesterday, a court in Rostov sentenced four Crimean Tatars to a total of 56 years on charges of participating in Hizb ut-Tahrir, which Russia baselessly calls a terrorist organization. As in dozens of previous similar mock trials, there was no proof of any connection to terrorism of even participation in the organization.
History repeats itself: it is on the same charges that in 1938, an ancestor of three of the accused was executed by the NKVD, to be posthumously rehabilitated in 1990 as illegally accused and repressed.
As of 29 October 2021, at least 331 people in Russia and occupied Crimea have been arrested for alleged affiliation with Hizb ut-Tahrir, according to the renowned Memorial Russian Human Rights Center.
Memorial recognised the defendants of this case, like many others accused of Hizb ut-Tahrir membership, as political prisoners. That is because huge sentences are given based on alleged affiliation with an organization baselessly criminalized as a terrorist and with no hard facts of the prisoners’ involvement in terrorism.
“Every Crimean Tatar family went through the same thing [lawlessness and injustice of the authorities]. In this connection, I think it is necessary to give some chronology of my ancestors.”Osman went on presenting that his great grandfather, Murtazayev Mustafa (born 1882) was an abbot in the mosque. On 6 February 1938, he and several other religious figures were arrested by NKVD of Bakhchysarai for participation in a nationalist counter-revolutionary group and counter-revolutionary terrorist propaganda. Allegedly, he attempted to take Crimea away from the USSR and incorporate it into Türkiye. It took NKVD six days to issue a verdict for Murtazayev Mustafa -- execution. Killed on 4 April 1938, Osman’s great grandfather was rehabilitated on 5 July 1990 as illegally accused and repressed. And on 18 May 1944, Murtazayev Mustafa’s family, his wife Reikhan and daughters Aishe and Fatma, were deported from Crimea to Asia. Osman concludes,
“History repeated… Repressions of 1937-1938, deportation of the Muslims of Crimea and the Caucasus in 1944, denigration and persecution of religious people. All this is a scar passed down from generation to generation. And today, in the 21st century, nothing changes at all...”Ukrainian human rights organizations issued a statement on yesterday’s sentencing of the four Crimean Tatars. You too can become their voice. Please, write to the Crimean Tatar political prisoners of the Kremlin. Instructions (find the full instructions and addresses of all political prisoners here):
- Letters must be written in Russian.
- Letters must exclude political subjects since they are read by the authorities before being passed to prisoners.
- Copy by hand or print the sample letter (find below). You can add your home address to maintain communication with Crimean Tatars.
- Don’t forget to mention i). the address of the prison (find below) that can be written in either Russian or in English transcription, ii). the particular addressee’s name and year of birth.
Related:
- Why this Crimean Tatar Muslim woman gives the Russian occupation authorities a headache
- Pull off a kangaroo court in five easy steps: a how-to guide from Russia
- (No) right to a fair trial, or a manual to Russia’s conveyor of repressions in Crimea
- “After they electrocuted me, I told them everything they needed.” How Russia’s FSB extracted a “confession” from a Crimean Tatar
- Painkillers instead of hospital: Russia’s torture of critically-ill Crimean Tatar political prisoners continues unabated
- How Crimean Tatar leader Dzhelyal swelled the ranks of Ukrainian “saboteurs”
- 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
- 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
