Rustem Osmanov, a Crimean Tatar sentenced to 6 years for serving in the N.Chelebidzhikhan Battalion, as it was said, is being tortured in the Russian penal colony.
As the CHRG reports, Mr. Osmanov communicated three weeks ago that the penal colony staff was regularly and severely beating him and threatening to kill him.
At the moment, he has been held in the punishment unit for three weeks. The penal colony administration refuses to provide the lawyer with any information about the political prisoner’s health condition.
Mr. Osmanov is serving his sentence in the penal colony of town of Donskoy, Tula Region, Russia (IK-1 FKU, UFSIN[1] of Russia for Tula Region, RF).
As the CHRG has informed:
- In April 2022, the Crimean “FSB” reported that Rustem Osmanov had been detained “when trying to enter Crimea through the Armiansk Road Checkpoint.” “The defendant was established, staying in the territory of Ukraine, to have voluntarily joined the battalion in 2016 providing logistic and food support for the battalion activities, and serving in its armed guards,” the statement said.
- The FSB opened a criminal case against Mr. Osmanov under the Russian Federation Criminal Code Article 208-2 (Organization of an illegal armed unit or service in it as well as participation in an armed conflict or military operations for purposes contrary to the interests of the Russian Federation).
- In August 2022 the “Belogorsk District Court of Crimea” sentenced Rustem Osmanov to six years in custody for serving in the “Noman Chelebidzhikhan Battalion”, as it was said.
- In late December 2022 Rustem Osmanov transferred a letter in which he informed that he had been abducted in Henichesk and tortured.
- Later it was informed that in the penal colony Mr. Osmanov was being forced to take a Russian citizenship and contract to fight in Ukraine.
[1] Russian acronyms: IK – Penal Colony, FKU – Federal State Institution, UFSIN – Directorate of the federal Penitentiary Service
