Crimean journalist Osman Arifmemetov loses 22 kg in Russian prison

Crimean Tatar citizen journalist Osman Arifmemetov has lost 22 kilograms of weight while imprisoned in Minusinsk (Krasnoyarsk region, Russia), his mother Emdiye Arifmemetova tells "Crimean Solidarity".

According to her, Osman is under enhanced surveillance and is not allowed to make phone calls. She does not know why he was assigned enhanced surveillance, as he does not write about it in his letters.

Osman Arifmemetov, photo by atr.ua

All convicts in the prison are given pork for lunch, which Crimean Tatars can not eat for religious reasons. Arifmemetov most likely lost a lot of weight due to malnutrition.

"He doesn't complain much, he doesn't say anything. He speaks very, very shortly – this is all we know. I have no idea why he lost so much weight. He applied for an appointment with a therapist for back pain treatment. The therapist accepted, [my son] passed the tests, [the doctor] looked them through – the blood was fine, normal, but the urine was bad. And they said it was kidney problems. Apparently, he has complications with his kidneys. I don't know what complications – that is another thing he doesn't say," the journalist's mother said.

She also said that the head of the infirmary allowed Osman to receive and use only two drugs – Voltaren for back pain and Canefron, which is prescribed for bladder infections. The family was told to send him all this by parcel. The rest of the medicines that Osman might need must be approved by the doctors.

Osman Arifmemetov is a citizen journalist sentenced to 14 years in prison in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case. He was detained by Russian police in Crimea in March 2019. A total of 24 people were detained over alleged involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organization that is outlawed in Russia and in Russia-occupied Crimea.

On November 24, 2022, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don convicted the detainees of terrorism and an attempt to seize power. Activists Enver Ametov and Yashar Muedinov were sentenced to 13 years in a high-security prison, and citizen journalists Ruslan Suleymanov, Rustem Sheihaliyev and Osman Arifmemetov were sentenced to 14 years behind bars. The political prisoners will spend four years in prison, and then will be restricted in their freedom of movement for another year. The defendants have pleaded not guilty and consider the persecution to be political.

On February 1, 2024, the appellate military court in Vlasykha upheld the sentence against five Crimean Tatar activists.

On March 18, 2024, Osman Arifmemetov was moved from the Novocherkassk PTDC (Rostov region, Russia) to the Krasnoyarsk Kray.