Mustafa Seidaliev
Mustafa Seidaliev is a human rights defender working on the protection of Crimean Tatars rights following the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Since 2017 he works as a public defender, supporting lawyers in cases before the courts and representing Crimean Tatars in civil proceedings and court cases. In 2019 Mustafa Seidaliev joined Crimean Solidarity. Crimean Solidarity monitors and documents human rights violations, provides legal aid, observes trials, and provides various types of assistance. Crimean Solidarity focuses mainly on providing support to the Crimean Tatar community, which has been particularly targeted by the Russian authorities. In June 2019, the human rights defender was detained in Moscow, Russia, alongside 40 other representatives of the Crimean Solidarity movement peacefully protesting the prosecution of Crimea Tatars based on alleged extremism charges.
The environment for the work of human rights defenders (HRDs) in the Russian Federation is difficult, especially for those who defend and promote the rights of LGBTI people, ethnic and religious minorities, refugees, as well as activists of the North Caucasus and the unlawfully annexed Crimean Peninsula. HRDs are often subjected to acts of harassment, surveillance, physical attacks, threat, raids and searches on their offices and homes, slander and smear campaigns, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment, as well as violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. There have also been cases where HRDs have been murdered as a result of their work.
