Russian security forces in occupied Crimea searched the home of journalist and political scientist Lenora Dyulber and confiscated her computer. She was taken to Simferopol and released after a questioning, the journalist’s mother Elmira Dyulberova reported to Crimean Solidarity.
According to Elmira Dyulberova, there was a knock on their door soon after 6 a.m. Several cars and two minibuses were parked on the street. About 20 armed people first scattered around the yard, then around “all the rooms there were,” Dulberova added. The operatives were acoompanied by two witnesses, and the law enforcers identified themselves.
“[They told us] to open everything ourselves, tell everything ourselves without hiding anything,” Elmira Dyulberova recounted the operatives’ words.
The search was warranted by the “Kyiv District Court of Simferopol.”
“Lenora read [the documents] – they told her to sign them. […] They started to examine everything, they didn’t take anything, they examined it very carefully,” the journalist’s mother added.
The security forces paid special attention to Lenora Dyulber’s academic papers; they questioned her in detail about her education.
“They looked through her entire thesis from cover to cover – where she studied, what she studied. She said she [graduated] a PhD program. They specified if it was a program in Simferopol, what was the topic of her thesis. They looked through every page – all the notes, all the books were photographed, all the dressers, all the documents were perused,” Elmira Dyulberova said.
They later examined the bathroom, the toilet, looked through the journalist’s phone, and took her computer. They drew up a report and took Lenora Dyulber to Simferopol.
“I asked where they were taking her. They said to Simferopol, ‘don’t worry, don’t be nervous, it’s an hour and a half to Simferopol, an hour and a half to talk to your daughter, and then she’ll come home,’” the journalist’s mother said.
Lenora Dyulber is a political scientist, sociologist, journalist, and Crimean Tatar activist. She hosts the popular talk show Merkez and co-authored a sociological study “Crimean Tatars amid the Political Environment Transformation”.
