CrimeaSOS: lawyers defending political prisoners in Crimea are once again subjected to persecution by the occupiers  

This morning, by resolution of the “Kyiv District Court”, employees of the occupation Centre for Countering Extremism conducted a search in the house of lawyers Rustem Kiamiliev and Lilia Hemedzhi. This was reported by the “Crimean Solidarity” activists.

“This is yet another proof that in Crimea, not only those who demonstrate the slightest disagreement with the actions of the occupation administration are persecuted, but also those who provide legal assistance to victims of persecution. Thus, we see that Rustem and Lilia are “on the radar” of russian security forces”, –CrimeaSOS analyst Yevhenii Yaroshenko says.  

After the search, Rustem was taken to the building of the Crimean Centre for Countering Extremism in Simferopol. According to his 21-year-old daughter Niiara, they promised to return her father. However, when she asked under which article the search was being conducted, the OMON representative replied: “Shut your mouth and don’t talk here.” 

Two administrative protocols were drawn up against the lawyer for posts on his Facebook page in 2017 and 2020. The “Crimean Solidarity” activists note: the first protocol against Rustem Kiamiliev was drawn up under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the code of administrative offenses of the russian federation (public demonstration of prohibited symbols) due to a repost from the “Crimean Solidarity” page about the trial over Ukrainian activist Oleh Prykhodko, the second protocol was drawn up under Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the code of administrative offenses of the russian federation due to “disagreement with the actions of the armed forces of the russian federation”.  

Rustem Kiamiliev is still detained. A court hearing to consider administrative protocols against him shall take place today. As a result of the search, all family members’ phones were confiscated. A folder of professional development certificates, seven letters from the Southern District Military Court, work notebooks, and documents related to her lawyer’s status were seized from Lilia Hemedzhi. According to her, they were looking for documents related to legal practice. In addition, the security officers were interested in whether Lilia and Rustem’s son was registered with the military, and one of them told him to wait for a conscription notices from the military registration and enlistment office. 

It should be noted that in accordance with the legislation of the russian federation (Article 8 of the federal law “On Advocacy and the Bar in the russian federation”), if one has the status of a lawyer, the above documents may be seized exclusively by court decision if they do not constitute a lawyer’s secret.  

Let us remind you that last year, at the request of the so-called “Bar Association of Crimea”, the lawyers’ licenses of Lilia Hemedzhi and Rustem Kiamiliev were revoked. At the time of the revocation of their licenses, Hemedzhi was defending 11 victims of political repression in Crimea, and Kiamiliev was defending 2. In addition, in May of this year, shortly before the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people, they were among those who were given a warning about the inadmissibility of violating the law on rallies.