Occupants deprive Crimean political prisoner of citizenship

The Crimean political prisoner Nariman Derman, convicted in the Chelibidzhikhan case, was deprived of Russian citizenship. Despite his disability, he has been in the colony for more than a year.

This was reported by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

58-year-old Nariman Derman, a Crimean political prisoner and a defendant in the so-called "Noman Chelebidzhikhan case", was deprived of his citizenship by the Russian authorities. Despite his serious health condition and second-group disability due to epilepsy, the man has been in custody for more than a year and a half.

In June 2025, Derman was officially informed in prison that he had been deprived of his Russian passport, which he received in May 2023 as a result of forced passportization after the occupation of Kherson region.

Nariman Derman is a citizen of Ukraine, a Crimean Tatar, a resident of the village of Novooleksiivka in the Kherson region. On February 7, 2024, FSB officers came to his house and, despite his wife's statements about her husband's serious illness, forcibly took him to an unknown destination. The next day it became known that a criminal case had been opened against him.

On February 8, the occupation court in Genichesk imposed a pre-trial restraint in the form of detention. In October 2024, Derman was sentenced to 3.5 years in a strict regime colony for allegedly participating in an allegedly illegal armed group. After the sentence, he was transferred to Verkhnouralsk in the Chelyabinsk region, where his health deteriorated sharply.

His wife repeatedly asked for a medical examination, but the colony administration refused, stating that "there were no grounds for examination". In January 2025, Nariman was hospitalized for 22 days due to heart problems and frequent epileptic seizures, after which he was returned to the colony without further treatment.

He was deprived of his citizenship by the main department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kherson region, motivating it by the commission of a crime. Now, even after serving his sentence, Derman will not be able to return home - because of his conviction, he may be denied the right to live in Novooleksiyivka and enjoy social guarantees.

According to the Crimean prosecutor's office, criminal proceedings have been opened in Ukraine regarding more than 3,800 war crimes and crimes against national security committed by Russians in Crimea. So far, Ukrainian courts have handed down about 200 verdicts, and about 580 more cases are pending.

Анна Бальчінос