Prominent human rights lawyer Edem Semedliaev sentenced to 12 days of administrative detention and fined
On 11 November 2021, the Central District Court of Simferopol found human rights defender Edem Semedliaev guilty of two counts of “disobeying the lawful orders of a police officer” (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code). The Court sentenced human rights defender to 12 days of administrative detention and issued him a fine of 4,000 Russian rubles for refusing to undress and undergo an unlawful personal search.
On 25 October 2021, the Russian riot police team and representatives of the Centre to Counteract Extremism harassed and detained human rights defender and lawyer Edem Semedliaev while he visited his clients in the Central Police Precinct of Simferopol, who had been detained earlier that day.
Edem Semedliaev
is a human rights defender and lawyer. Since the occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, he has been actively involved in legally representing and defending the rights of the Crimean Tatars, who have become one of the major targets for the authorities, alongside civil society activists and journalists.
On 11 November 2021, the Central District Court of Simferopol found human rights defender Edem Semedliaev guilty of two counts of “disobeying the lawful orders of a police officer” (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code). The Court sentenced human rights defender to 12 days of administrative detention and issued him a fine of 4,000 Russian rubles for refusing to undress and undergo an unlawful personal search.
Edem Semedliaev is a human rights defender and lawyer. Since the occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, he has been actively involved in legally representing and defending the rights of the Crimean Tatars, who have become one of the major targets for the authorities, alongside civil society activists and journalists.
On 11 November 2021, Edem Semedliaev was asked to come to the Center for Counteracting Extremism to review the paperwork for the previous charges. Later that day, the Central District Court of Simferopol convicted the human rights defender with two counts of “disobeying the lawful orders of a police officer” (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code). Edem Semedliaev was sentenced to 12 days of administrative detention and a fine for refusing to undress to undergo a personal search. During the hearing, Edem Semedliaev’s wife recevied a fine for a parking violation and her car was towed away by police. The Crimean Solidarity group reports this event as an extension of state-sponsored pressure on Edem Semedliaev for his non-violent human rights work defending the rights of Crimean Tatars.
On 25 October 2021, when Edem Semedliaev arrived at the Central Police Precinct of Simferopol to provide legal assistance to his clients who had been arrested earier that day, law enforcement officers subjected him to mistreatment and harassment, and fabricated an unjust civil lawsuit against him. The human rights lawyer was detained that day and appeared in the Court on 26 October 2021, during which the Court returned the case to the police to fix some inconsistencies in the paperwork.
Front Line Defenders is concerned by the conviction and detention of human rights defender Edem Semedliaev as it believes he has been solely targeted as a result of his legitimate work as a human rights lawyer. Front Line Defenders calls on the authorities to quash the conviction against him.
On 25 October 2021, the Russian riot police team and representatives of the Centre to Counteract Extremism harassed and detained human rights defender and lawyer Edem Semedliaev while he visited his clients in the Central Police Precinct of Simferopol, who had been detained earlier that day.
Edem Semedliaev is a human rights defender and lawyer. Since the occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, he has been actively involved in legally representing and defending the rights of the Crimean Tatars, who have become one of the major targets for the authorities, alongside civil society activists and journalists.
On 25 October 2021 the appeal hearing of three Crimean Tatars, who were charged for their membership in the Muslim organisation Hizb-ut Tahrir in November 2020, took place at the Crimean Garrison Court. Many people, including civil society activists, human rights defenders and journalists from the Crimean Solidarity Group arrived at the Court to support the detainees. At around 11 AM, a Court representative came out of the building and claimed that the supporters present were violating the current COVID-19 measures in place and ordered them to leave. At that time, representatives from the riot police team started to detain the supporters in front of the Court. The riot police were accompanied by representatives of the Federal Security Service and Center for Countering Extremism. In total, 21 individuals, including members of the Crimean Solidarity Group and civic journalists, were detained.
Later that day, Edem Semedliaev and other lawyers arrived at the Central Police Precinct of Simferopol to offer legal assistance to those detained in front of the Court. Edem Semedliaev was the only lawyer who was permitted to enter the precinct. When the human rights lawyer started talking with one of his detained clients, a police officer began pressuring both of them and threatened the defendant with prosecution for “disobeying the lawful orders of a police officer.” Responding to such threats, Edem Semedliaev stated that he would voice-record the events in the precinct. The police officer said that Edem Semedliaev was violating the law and filed civic charges against him under Article 19.3 of the Russian Code of Civil Conduct, citing once again that the human rights defender was disobeying police orders.
The police officer then ordered Edem Semedliaev to undress to undergo a personal search. The representatives of the Center to Counteract Extremism stated that they needed to see if the human rights lawyer had any “extremists” tattoos on his body. When Edem Semedliaev refused, citing Article 28 of the Constitution, the officer issued another charge sheet with the same Civic Code violation and placed him in detention in a temporary detention ward in Sudak, Crimea, where he spent a night before being released after the court hearing because the protocols had to be sent back to the police precinct. The charges against the human rights defender still stand and he may face a further 15 days in prison if charged.
The targeting and systemic persecution of human rights lawyers by the Russian Federal Security Services forms part of a worrying trend in Crimea since its annexation in 2014. This systemic persecution includes judicial harassment, office raids, disciplinary penalties, and disbarment threats. Another prominent Crimean human rights lawyer Emil Kurbedinov was repeatedly sentenced to short-term detentions in 2017 and 2018 for publishing Hizb-ut Tahrir related materials on his social media pages. Shortly after Emil Kurbedinov was arrested in 2017, Russian Federal Security Services raided his and Edem Semedliaev’s office and seized various personal and professional items belonging to them. Another prominent Crimean human rights defender and lawyer, Lilia Gemedzy, faced a disciplinary punishment for “repeated violation of the Court hearing regulations” in 2020.
Front Line Defenders expresses grave concerns about the repeated persecution of human rights lawyers by Russian law enforcement bodies in the territory of annexed Crimea. Front Line Defenders call upon the authorities to cease the persecution and judicial harassment of human rights lawyer Edem Semedliaev for his non-violent human rights work.
