Russia’s persecution of four members of one family, as well as of a gravely ill civic journalist is chillingly reminiscent of the methods of terror use by Stalin’s regime against the three brothers’ great-grandfather
From left one of the children whose lives were shattered on 11 March 2020, Rustem Seitmemetov, Amet Suleimanov, Osman Seitumerov, Seitumer Seitumerov
From left one of the children whose lives were shattered on 11 March 2020, Rustem Seitmemetov, Amet Suleimanov, Osman Seitumerov, Seitumer Seitumerov
It is five years this week since Russia’s FSB burst into seven Crimean Tatar homes in occupied Bakhchysarai and began the slow execution of Crimean Solidarity civic journalist Amet Suleimanov (b. 1984) and relentless persecution of the family of a renowned Crimean Tatar historian. Seitumer Seitumerov (1988), his brother Osman Seitumerov (b. 1992) and their uncle Rustem Seitmemetov (b. 1973) have been imprisoned since 11 March 2020. That, however, did not stop the FSB from coming two years later for historian Shukhri Seitumerov’s last son - 23-year-old Abdulmedzhit Seitumerov who had just become a father. The three brothers’ great-grandfather was executed during Stalin’s Terror for supposed ‘counter-revolutionary terrorist propaganda’. 80 years later, Russia’s occupation regime used chillingly similar charges for its own show trials and politically motivated sentences against men who had not committed any crime.
Russia began using conveyor-belt trials on flawed ‘terrorism’ charges against law-abiding Crimean Muslims back in early 2015. Since late 2017, however, the FSB have overtly targeted Crimean Tatar civic journalists and activists of the Crimean Solidarity human rights initiative, and the armed raids in the early morning of 11 March 2020 were no exception. Although he had been forced through illness to curtail his activities, Amet Suleimanov was a Crimean Solidarity civic journalist who played a major role in ensuring coverage of political trials and other forms of persecution under Russian occupation. Seitumer and Osman Seitumerov had both attended political trials, as well as taking part in activities for the ever-mounting number of children of political prisoners. The other targets that day also left no room for doubt as to the motives behind such FSB persecution. The FSB also came for another Crimean Tatars with the name Seitumer Seitumerov on 11 March, the second a presenter for the Crimean Tatar TV channel which Russia drove out of Crimea following its annexation. Fortunately he was safely in mainland Ukraine, something the FSB certainly should have known. They did detain another Crimean Solidarity civic activist Seidamet Mustafayev (b. 1985). On that occasion, however, they had probably reached their quota of arrests and he was released, only to be arrested, together with the last Seitumerov brother two years later.
These really are trials by quota, with the FSB known, even in Russia, to get promotion and / or bonuses for ‘good statistics’. In occupied Crimea, they are likely also rewarded for their part in terrorising entire communities and in trying to crush the Crimean Tatar human rights movement. In Bakhchysarai particularly, the FSB have used the same illicitly taped conversations and fake ‘secret witnesses’ against men arrested years after the conversations.
Although the charges are of ‘terrorism’, the armed and masked officers who burst into homes where children were fast asleep never pretend to be looking for anything but ‘prohibited literature’. Nor do they particularly pretend to look, as the FSB typically brings such ‘prohibited books’ with them and then plants them in places no devout Muslim would keep religious literature.
The charges are essentially only of unproven ‘involvement’ in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a controversial, but peaceful transnational Muslim organization which is legal in Ukraine. No adequate reason has ever been provided for the highly secretive ruling by Russia’s supreme court in 2003 which labelled Hizb ut-Tahrir ‘terrorist’. Vitaly Ponomaryov, a researcher for the authoritative Memorial human rights organization, has suggested that the ruling was aimed at enabling the Russian authorities to send refugees back to Uzbekistan where they faced religious persecution. Ponomaryov has also pointed to the FSB receiving perks or promotion for such cases.
Seitumer Seitumerov was charged under the more serious Article 205.5 § 1 of Russia’s criminal code with ‘organizing a Hizb ut-Tahrir group’, while Osman Seitumerov, their uncle Rustem Seitmemetov and Amet Suleimanov were charged with ‘involvement’ in this entirely unproven ‘group’, under Article 205.5 § 2. All of the men were also accused of ‘planning a violent uprising’ (Article 278) although even the FSB admitted that not one of them was suspected of actions or direct plans to commit any action aimed at ‘overthrowing the Russian constitutional order’
Aside from planted ‘prohibited literature’, the ‘evidence’ for the charges lay solely in a conversation taped by the FSB back in 2017, during which the men discussed religious subjects, Russian persecution and events in Crimea, and the ‘testimony’ of anonymous ‘witnesses’. The transcripts, often with mistakes, are passed to FSB-loyal ‘experts’ who provide the flawed assessments demanded. Virtually all of Russia’s political and religious persecution of Crimeans revolves around such ‘secret witnesses’ with almost all the trials of Bakhchysarai residents using two men, whose identity is known. Since one is a fugitive from justice in Latvia, the other an Uzek national not wanting to be sent back, both had clear motives for agreeing to collaborate with the FSB.
All of this was demonstrated to be court by the men themselves and their lawyers, and was all ignored. Prosecutor Yevgeny Nadolinsky demanded horrific sentences against all four men, with ‘judges’ Igor Kostin (presiding); Roman Plisko and Yevgeny Zviagin from the Southern District Military Court in Rostov (Russia) obliging on 29 October 2021. Seitumer Seitumerov was sentenced to 17 years; Osman Seitumerov to 14 years; Rustem Seitmemetov to 13 years and Amet Suleimanov to 12 years. All of the sentences are for the worst of Russian penal institutions, with the first 3.5 years in a prison, where the conditions are especially harsh. These sentences were upheld on 9 February 2023, by ‘judge’ Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Mordovin from the Military Court of Appeal in Vlasikha (Moscow region).
All four men are recognized political prisoners, with Russia and the FSB, prosecutors and ‘judges’ involved in their persecution knowingly in violation of international law, as well as fundamental principles of law. In this case, however, they are also complicit in the slow torturing to death of Amet Suleimanov, who is gravely ill and who, even according to Russian law, should not be imprisoned.
Back in March 2020, it had seemed that the FSB did even understand this, with Suleimanov, after one night in custody, released under house arrest. It now seems likely that the FSB simply wanted to ensure that Suleimanov survived until his sentence had been upheld. Amet has multiple very serious medical conditions and urgently needs a heart valve replacement. His life is in danger. Please help publicize his and the other political prisoners’ plight.
Russia refuses critically ill Crimean Tatar political prisoner life-saving heart surgery