Crimean journalist Rustem Sheihaliev moved to a prison in Russia

Citizen journalist Rustem Sheihaliev. Photo by Crimean Solidarity

Rustem Sheihaliev, a citizen journalist from the occupied Crimea, has been moved to a Russian prison in Yeniseysk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, which is 5,000 kilometers away from the peninsula, reports human rights activist, citizen journalist Lutfiye Zudieva, citing Sheihaliev's wife Suriya.

Zudiyeva added that political prisoner, Crimean Tatar politician and journalist Nariman Chelal has been in another Russian prison – in Minusinsk – for several months.

On March 27, 2019, mass searches of Crimean Tatar households took place in the Kamyanka and Strohanivka microdistricts of Simferopol, Crimea. Due to the large amount of case material, the authorities divided the 25 defendants in the case into five groups of five. Almost all the detainees were citizen journalists or public activists.

On November 24, 2022, the Southern District Military Court's presiding judge Vyacheslav Korsakov, together with judges Denis Galkin and Igor Shendrikov, convicted the Crimean Tatar activists, including Ruslan Suleimanov, of terrorism and an attempted coup. Activists Enver Ametov and Yashar Muedinov were sentenced to 13 years in a high-security prison, and civilian journalists Ruslan Suleimanov, Rustem Sheikhaliev, and Osman Arifmemetov were sentenced to 14 years in prison. The political prisoners will spend four years in prison, and then their freedom of movement will be restricted for another year. The defendants have pleaded not guilty and consider their persecution to be political.