CrimeaSOS: detention of the Akhaiev brothers can be regarded as enforced disappearance
20 / 12 / 2022
The detention of Ernest and Marlen Akhaiev can be regarded as enforced disappearance. This was reported by CrimeaSOS analyst Yevhenii Yaroshenko.
“The detention of Crimean Tatars Ernest and Marlen Akhaiev in the Dzhankoi area in the occupied Crimea has all three elements of enforced disappearance. First, the Akhaev brothers were detained. Second, they were detained by Russian police officers, that is, official representatives of the occupying state. Third, the russian security forces took the Akhaiev brothers to an unknown destination: from morning until evening, the relatives and the lawyer of the detainees did not know their whereabouts, and the detainees did not have access to a lawyer”, — Yevhenii Yaroshenko explained.
According to international law, enforced disappearance contains three elements:
- Arrest, detention, abduction of a person or deprivation of his/her liberty in any other form.
- These actions were carried out by representatives of the state, persons or groups of persons acting with the permission, with the support or with the consent of the state.
- Refusal to recognize the fact of deprivation of liberty or concealment of information about the fate or whereabouts of a missing person, as a result of which this person remains without protection of the law.
On the morning of December 19, in the village of Turhenieve, Dzhankoi area in the occupied Crimea, officers of the occupation police searched the houses of the families of the Akhaiev brothers. Subsequently, the so-called “law enforcement officers” detained Ernest and Marlen Akhaiev and took them to an unknown destination. In the evening, relatives of the brothers reported that they had returned home.
As the lawyer told CrimeaSOS, torture could be applied to the detainees, as their whereabouts were hidden.