On May 30, 2024, the 4th Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction in Krasnodar (Russia) upheld a sentence of Crimean Tatar Appaz Kurtamet: 7 years in confinement on charges of “financing a militant group”.
On April 20, 2023, “Kievskiy District Court of Simferopol” (“judge” Oksana Karchevskaya) is reported to have sentenced Appaz Kurtamet abducted in July 2022 at the administrative boundary with the Kherson Region, to 7 years in the maximum security regime penal colony, with serving the first year in prison.
On August 29, 2023, the occupation “Supreme Court” of Crimea upheld Appaz Kurtamet’s sentence: 7 years for “financing KRYM (CRIMEA) battalion” as they said.
To remind: Appaz Kurtamet is a 20-year-old Crimean Tatar, a teacher of the Crimean Tatar language from the village of Novooleksiyivka, Kherson Region. On July 23, 2022, he left Novooleksiyivka for Crimea to visit his relatives. His contact with the relatives was lost at CHONGAR Checkpoint. For almost three months there was no information about his whereabouts and a legal status. There was also no information on the reason for detention and charges brought against.
Mr. Kurtamet was charged with committing a crime under Article 208-1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (financing of a militant group). According to the prosecution, “Kurtamet, being aware of the illegal activities of the CRIMEA Islamic battalion, transferred 500 hryvnias to the representative of the battalion.”
