Human rights defender Abdureshit Dzhepparov released
On 7 May, 2023 Crimean Tatar human rights defender Abdureshit Dzhepparov was released after completing his sentence of 12 days administrative arrest. Crimean solidarity reported that occupying police officers insisted on dispersing the spontaneous gathering of people who came to meet Abdureshit Dzhepparov and recorded the personal information from three human rights lawyers- Emil Kurbedinov, Edem Semedliaev and Rustem Kyamilev.
On 25 April 2023 Crimean Solidarity reported that at 7 am, human rights defender Abdureshit Dzhepparov’s family home in Bilohirsk, Crimea was raided by unidentified individuals in Russian military uniform. After the raid, the same group of individuals forced the human rights defender to leave with them to an unknown location. On the same day, Abdureshit Dzhepparov was transferred to Simferopol, charged with an administrative offence and sentenced to 12 days of detention.
Abdureshit Dzhepparov is a human right defender and activist of the Crimean Tatar National Movement working to raise awareness about Crimean Tatars as an indigenous community and standing up for the community's right to return to their homeland after the 1944 Deportation by Joseph Stalin’s regime. Since the illegal occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation 2014, Abdureshit Dzhepparov has coordinated the Crimean Contact Group on Human Rights, dealing with enforced disappearances on the Russia-occupied peninsula. Abdureshit Dzhepparov is one of co-founders of human rights group Crimean Solidarity and several other initiatives. In 2020 he was nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize.
On 7 May, 2023 Crimean Tatar human rights defender Abdureshit Dzhepparov was released after completing his sentence of 12 days administrative arrest. Crimean solidarity reported that occupying police officers insisted on dispersing the spontaneous gathering of people who came to meet Abdureshit Dzhepparov and recorded the personal information from three human rights lawyers- Emil Kurbedinov, Edem Semedliaev and Rustem Kyamilev.
It was also confirmed, that during the search of Abdureshit Dzhepparov's home on 25 April 2023, he was not charged with or suspected of any crime. The human rights defender himself reported that he was told in custody that the raid on his home was a “preventive measure” and that he found out about the administrative charges against him only in the courtroom.
On 25 April 2023 Crimean Solidarity reported that at 7 am, human rights defender Abdureshit Dzhepparov’s family home in Bilohirsk, Crimea was raided by unidentified individuals in Russian military uniform. After the raid, the same group of individuals forced the human rights defender to leave with them to an unknown location. On the same day, Abdureshit Dzhepparov was transferred to Simferopol, charged with an administrative offence and sentenced to 12 days of detention.
Abdureshit Dzhepparov is a human right defender and activist of the Crimean Tatar National Movement working to raise awareness about Crimean Tatars as an indigenous community and standing up for the community's right to return to their homeland after the 1944 Deportation by Joseph Stalin’s regime. Since the illegal occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation 2014, Abdureshit Dzhepparov has coordinated the Crimean Contact Group on Human Rights, dealing with enforced disappearances on the Russia-occupied peninsula. Abdureshit Dzhepparov is one of co-founders of human rights group Crimean Solidarity and several other initiatives. In 2020 he was nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize.
On 25 April 2023 Crimean Solidarity human rights initiative reported that at 7 am human rights defender Abdureshit’s Dzhepparov family home in Bilohirsk was raided by unidentified individuals in Russian military uniform. According to the human rights defender’s wife, the groups raiding the house immediately seized their phones, and preventing them to contact their lawyer or anyone else while the raid was occuring. After the raid, the same group of individuals took the human rights defender with them to an unknown location. His family members and lawyers commenced the search for Abduresit Dzhepparov in different locations where the human rights defender could have been held. However, the Russian Federal Security Service, local department of the Ministry of Interior and the representatives of the Center for Combating Extremism when questioned denied that Abdureshit Dzhepparov was detained on their premises.
On 25 April 2023, after 9 pm, Abdureshit Dzhepparov’s lawyer, Edem Semedlyaev, and family managed to gain confirmation that the Russian authorities transferred him from Bilohirsk to Simferopol where he is being held in the Detention Center for Administrative Detainees located in the police precinct of Zaliznychnyi district in Simferopol. The authorities charged Abdureshit Dzhepparov with “disobedience to the lawful order of a police officer,” an administrative offence stipulated by the Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, because he allegedly obstructed the seizure of his laptop during the search. The sanction envisioned under this article pertains to 12 days of administrative detention. Abdureshit Dzhepparov’s lawyer was not informed of the Court hearing, and subsequently could not attend.
This is not the first time that Russian authorities in Crimea have targetted Abdureshit Dzhepparov for his human rights work. On 27 September 2014, Abdureshit Dzhepparov’s son, Islyam Dzhepparov, and his nephew, Dzhevdet Islyamov were enforcibly disappeareded near the Crimean Tatar village of Sary-Su in the Bilohirsk district, and have been missing ever since.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned about the raid of the house, arbitrary and incommunicado detention of Crimean Tatar human rights defender Abdureshit Dzhepparov, and the denial of his access to legal counsel, which significantly raises the risks of torture, ill-treatment in detention and depriving from his right to defence. Front Line Defenders believes that his detention is solely motivated by his peaceful and legitimate work in the defence of human rights. The detention of the Crimean Tatar human rights defender is part of a pattern of targetting human rights defenders for their legitimate and non-violent human rights work on Russian-occupied territories.
