The Observatory has been informed about the administrative arrest of Mr Abdureshit Dzhepparov,
an indigenous and minority Crimean Tatar rights defender and
coordinator of the Crimean Contact Group on Human Rights, a
non-governmental organisation that monitors and documents human rights
violations, provides legal support to victims and investigates enforced
disappearances in occupied Crimea.
On April 25, 2023, members of the
Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) and of the
Centre for Combatting Extremism, masked and armed with firearms,
conducted a search in the apartment of Abdureshit Dzhepparov in the
Sary-Su village of Bilogorsk District, in the Russian-occupied Crimea.
Mr Dzhepparov’s mobile phone and video recorder, as well as his wife and
daughter’s phones were seized. The Russian law enforcement officers
also confiscated his Ukrainian international passport, as well as an
award he had received from the Ukrainian government. Mr Dzhepparov was
subsequently arrested and taken to an unknown location. His fate and
whereabouts remained unknown for more than 12 hours.
On April 26, 2023, it became known
that, following his arrest, Mr Dzhepparov was brought before the
Bilohirsk District Court, was charged with “disobedience to police
officer” (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the
Russian Federation) and sentenced to 12 days of administrative
detention. His lawyer was not present in the courthouse, because he was
denied any information about Mr Dzhepparov’s whereabouts, place of
detention and any procedures against his client. According to the
version events of the Russian law enforcement, the charge is related to
the alleged resistance he put up to prevent the seizure of his laptop
during the search. Mr Dzhepparov later told his lawyer that this
accusation was false, given that it was impossible for him to put up any
resistance against the armed men ,and that he knows how to behave in
the context of a search.
At the time of this Urgent Appeal,
Mr Dzhepparov remained detained in solitary confinement in the Special
Detention Centre in Simferopol.
The Observatory recalls
that this is not the first time Mr Dzhepparov is arbitrarily arrested.
On March 16, 2022, following a search in his apartment conducted by
several FSB officers, he was arrested along with two of his nephews. On
the same day, Mr Dzhepparov was sentenced to 15 days of administrative
detention under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences of
the Russian Federation (“propaganda and public display of Nazi
paraphernalia and symbols”). The charges were related to Mr Dzhepparov’s
publication of a five-minute video on his social media channels stating
that the Soviet military march known as “Aviators march” was copied
from the Nazi Germany military march. He served his sentence in
Evpatoria Temporary Detention Centre and was released on March 31, 2022.
The Observatory further notes that
since the occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014,
Crimean Tatars and those who defend their rights have been particularly
targeted by the Russian authorities, including through enforced
disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary and administrative
detentions, judicial harassment and arbitrary searches, such as the
arbitrary detentions of Edem Semedlyaev and Nariman Dzhelyal.
In this framework, since 2014, Abdureshit Dzhepparov and his family
have faced multiple acts of harassment, threats and attacks from the
Russian authorities, including the abduction of his son Islyam
Dzhepparov and nephew Dzhevdet Islyamov on September 27, 2014, whose
fate and whereabouts remain unknown since then. The Russian occupying
authorities in Crimea have not launched any investigation into their
disappearance.
The Observatory expresses its utmost
concern over the administrative detention of Abdureshit Dzhepparov and
urges the Russian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release
him, to drop all charges against him and to put an end to all acts of
harassment, including at the administrative and judicial levels, against
him and all human rights defenders and organisations in Crimea.
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