Missing Crimean Tatar Prisoner Servet Gaziev: Family's Search for Justice

In December 2024, the Russian occupiers transferred illegally convicted 64-year-old Crimean Tatar Servet Gaziyev from prison #2 in the Vladimir region. Since then, his family does not know where he is.

According to Qirim media, this was reported by the prisoner's sister Svetlana Ablyamitova.

According to the woman, the last time Gaziev called in early December, he was informed by Zonetelecom that he "could be taken from prison to the colony at any moment".

"I immediately sent money to his account to buy everything he needed for the trip. On December 19, I wrote him a letter asking whether he had received the money, but there was no response," Ablyamitova said.

She said she thought her brother was having difficulty writing again. Due to the stroke he suffered in 2021 and the beating in a psychiatric hospital, when Gaziev's beard was forcibly shaved and his collarbone was dislocated, his right hand hurt and his fingers were numb.

"But there was no letter and no letter. In January, I wrote to him again, sent a letter on January 9. I thought maybe the correspondence had been suspended because of the holidays. I waited until January 16, but there was no letter again. Then I called the prison's accounting department, and they told me that there was no such prisoner - he was sent to the stage. They did not say where or on what date he was sent," the prisoner's sister added.

According to the human rights organization CrimeaSOS, 117 people are being persecuted in the annexed Crimea for belonging tothe Hizb ut-Tahrir organization. 108 people are currently in penitentiary institutions, 3 are under house arrest, 84 people have received illegal convictions and 5 more have served illegal prison terms.

The occupiers in prisons are trying to break down the residents of Crimea. In the first 9 months of 2024, Russian security forces placed Crimean political prisoners in punishment cells, special blocks and solitary confinement at least 16 times. It is noted that, in particular, the following offenses were committed: Server Zekiryayev (3), Server Mustafayev (2), Teymur Abdullayev, Eskender Abdulganiyev (2), Ali Mamutov, Oleg Prykhodko, Seyran Saliyev, Serhiy Tsygipa, Edem Smailov, Marlen Asanov, Rustem Gugurik and Remzi Bekirov. In total, since 2017, 10,018 violations of fundamental human rights have been recorded in the Russian-annexed Crimea, 6,730 of which were committed against members of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.

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