Russian court in Crimea approves fining citizen journalist Lutfiye Zudieva for posts about the "Bilohirsk group"

Citizen journalist, human rights activist Lutfiye Zudieva. Photo by Illya Tarasov / Krym.Realii

The Russia-controlled Kyiv District Court of Simferopol considered the appeal against the verdict fining the human rights activist and journalist Lutfiye Zudieva and upheld the ruling to impose an administrative penalty on her, reports the civil society initiative "Crimean Solidarity", citing Zudieva's lawyer Emil Kurbedinov.

The lawyer said that the appelate court's ruling was "expected" and noted that he and his client would apply for cassation.

"Looking at the court hearings and the case files, I understand that the court is relying on something else, not on the law or the due process established in legal relations when it comes to mass media publications," Kurbedinov said.

He reminded that Lutfiye Zudieva, was posting about the hearings in the "Bilohirsk group" case on her private channel as a private person.

"The state, represented by the law enforcement and the judiciary that plays along with it, simply intends to ensure that no information about such high-profile political trials is reported to the public. So that people keep silent and don't even state the facts with no value judgements," the lawyer added.

He added that if the cassation court also upholds the ruling regarding the human rights activist and citizen journalist, he intends to appeal to international institutions.

Persecution of journalist Lurfiye Zudieva

On February 22, 2024, officers of Russia's Center for Combating Extremism searched Lutfiye Zudieva's house. After the search, she was taken away to the counter-extremism center, but later released.

The police opened an administrative case against her under Parts 2 and 2.1 of Art. 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (abuse of freedom of mass information). The investigation was triggered by her Facebook post about the unlawful persecution of alleged Hizb ut-Tahrir members, as she did not mention that Hizb ut-Tahrir is considered a terrorist organization by Russia, and also cited a Radio Liberty article without noting that the media outlet is considered a "foreign agent" by Russian law.

In March 2024, the Russia-controlled Kyiv District Court in Simferopol fined the human rights activist and journalist Lutfiye Zudieva 2,500 rubles (UAH 1,000). Roman Filatov of the Russian Counter-Extremism Center (CEC) charged her with "abuse of freedom of mass information."

According to Zudieva, the judgement was issued without her participation and the court did not review the written objections of the defense. She believes that she is not an offender and as a natural person was not obliged to comply with the requirements, and that the head of the Crimean CEC department Ruslan Shambazov essentially treated her personal Facebook page as a registered media outlet.

In April 2024, a Russian court in Crimea fined the Crimean Tatar human rights activist and citizen journalist Lutfiye Zudieva, finding her guilty of "abusing the freedom of mass information.