Imprisoned Crimean journalist Remzi Bekirov has been out of contact for three weeks

Crimean citizen journalist Remzi Bekirov, who was sentenced to 19 years of imprisonment by Russia and is being detained in the Abakan prison No. 33 (Russia), has been out of contact with his family for nearly three weeks.

His wife Khalide Bekirova reported this to Crimean Solidarity.

According to her, his last letter from the prison was written on October 2. In the two and a half months that Ramzi Bekirov was detained there, he was also never allowed to call his family by phone.

"As his wife, I am very worried about him. I don't know what happened to him, where he is now, whether he is in a SHIZO (solitary confinement – Ed.) again. Because at the time when he wrote the last letter, on October 2, before that he would constantly get placed in solitary confinement, and on completely unfounded charges," said Khalide Bekirova.

Remzi Bekirov. Photo by Crimean Solidarity

She also said that she had written complaints to the Russian prosecutor and the Federal Penitentiary Service and is waiting for a response from the authorities.

"I demand that they do something to stop the pressure on my husband. [...] I believe that this [pressure] is happening because of his views, because he is a political prisoner and also a journalist," added his wife.

As Crimean Solidarity notes, Ramzi Bekirov was moved to the prison in early August of this year. He is almost constantly held in solitary confinement. As of September 20, he had been in such confinement for a month.

The reasons for this punishment, as reported by the human rights advocates, include: not wearing a hat, refusing to disclose personal details to a colony employee and to greet the warden. "He was assigned 10 days of solitary confinement for breaching the daily schedule — he left his bed at night to pray," note the human rights advocates.

Who is Remzi Bekirov

In August 2024, Remzi Bekirov was moved from the pre-trial detention center in Krasnoyarsk (Russia) to penal colony No. 33 in Abakan (the capital of the Republic of Khakassia).

On August 10, 2024, his lawyer Emil Kurbedinov reported that citizen journalist Remzi Bekirov, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison, is under pressure from the administration of the prison No. 33 in Abakan, Republic of Khakassia (RF).

Remzi Bekirov is a Crimean Tatar citizen journalist with "Crimean Solidarity". Detained in occupied Crimea during searches in the homes of Crimean Tatar activists on March 27, 2019. Bekirov livestreamed searches and trials in politically motivated cases and reported on the persecution of Crimean Tatars. Sentenced to 19 years in prison for alleged terrorism and attempted overthrow of government by the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don (Russia) in 2020.

Remzi Bekirov is on the list of journalists in Russian detention by the Institute of Mass Information.