Ukraine returned political prisoner Nariman Dzelial, deputy Chairman of the Mejlis, and 9 more civil Ukrainians from Russian captivity.
This was reported by President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
“We managed to return ten more our people from the Russian captivity. Despite all the challenges. Nariman Dzhelial, deputy Chairman of the Crimean Tatar People Mejlis, was captured in Crimea in 2021. Olena Pekh and Valeriy Matiushenko, civilians, were captured in 2017 – 2018. Bohdan Heleta and Ivan Levytskyi, priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, were captured in Berdiansk due to their resistance to the occupiers. And five civilians more who were captured in the territory of Belarus: Mykola Shvets, Nataliya Zakharenko, Pavlo Kupriyenko, Liudmyla Honcharenko, and Kateryna Briukhanova. They all have been released and are at home – in Ukraine. I am thankful to everyone who helped! I express my gratitude to our team in charge of releasing the captives. I also want to recognize the efforts of the Vatican for returning these people home. We will surely liberate all our people!”, Mr. Zelenskyi said.
To remind:
Mr.Dzelial and the brothers Akhmetov were arrested in September, 2021. Mr. Dzhelial was arrested a few days after his public participation in the International Crimea Platform Inaugural Summit.
In September 2022, the occupation court sentenced Nariman Dzhelial to 17 years, Asan Akhtemov – to 15 years, Aziz Akhtemov – to 13 years, all in the maximum-security regime penal colony.
The official reason for conviction was a so called “gas pipeline sabotage”, though the prosecution failed to present any actual evidence of their implication in the crime.
On September 21, 2022, the “Supreme Court” of Crimea incriminated Mr.Dzelial and the brothers Akhmetov “blasting the gas pipeline in the village of Perevalnoye” and convicted them according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation articles: 281-2 a), b) (sabotage committed by an organized group), 221.1-4 (illegal acquisition, storage and transportation of explosive devices committed by an organized group), 226.1-3 (illegal transportation of an explosive device across the customs border committed by an organized group). The prosecution evidence was based on the statements of the defendants made under torture or the real threat of torture (that was stated by the defendants at the court session).
In October, 2023, Nariman Dzhelial was transferred to the city of Minusinsk, Eastern Siberia.
According to the human rights defenders, such criminal persecution and deprival of liberty may be attributed as a politically reasoned persecution, first of all, for their civic position.
Nariman Dzhelial, a journalist, a political scientist, a lecturer, a public figure, and the First Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatar People, was the only representative of the Crimean Tatar national body management, who lived and worked in the occupied Crimea for last few years. He reported persecutions and oppression of the Crimea indigenous people and the Ukrainians that started after the occupation in 2014. He has many times spoken for the support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and termination of the war unleashed by the Russian aggression.
