CrimeaSOS: the abduction of Khatizhe Buiukchan has elements of enforced disappearance
9 / 05 / 2025
The detention of 24-year-old Crimean Tatar Khatizhe Buiukchan has features of an enforced disappearance. Considering the available facts – the detention of Khatizhe by the occupation law enforcement officers in Crimea, the territory of which is the subject to systematic politically motivated persecution, the subsequent information silence regarding her whereabouts, and considering the impossibility of the person receiving legal assistance – this incident bears the hallmarks of an enforced disappearance.
According to international law, enforced disappearance includes three elements: arrest, detention, abduction of a person or deprivation of his or her liberty in any other form; the commission of the above-mentioned acts by representatives of the State or persons acting with the support of the State; refusal to acknowledge the fact of deprivation of liberty or concealment of information about the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, as a result of which this person remains without the legal protection.
Khatizhe disappeared on May 6. This was reported by the “Crimean Tatar Resource Center”. It is known that on that day, a 24-year-old Crimean Tatar woman left Staryi Krym for Simferopol by bus, after which contact with her was lost. On May 7, it became known that the girl had been found.
Occupation law enforcement officers were involved in her detention. It is still unknown why Khatizhe was detained and where she is.
This is the 12th known case of enforced disappearances of women in Crimea. Learn more about the enforced disappearances of women in the CrimeaSOS article.