The occupiers once again detained the Crimean lawyer Emil Kurbedinov 

On February 15, 2024, at 11 a.m., the occupiers detained Emil Kurbedinov being the lawyer of victims of politically motivated cases, near the FSB building in Simferopol.

“Lawyer Emil Kurbedinov was detained in Simferopol near the building of the FSB Directorate. Employees of the Centre for Combating Extremism take him to the city police department”, — the “Crimean Solidarity” Facebook page posted.

About 1.5 hours later, the special services released Emil. However, a court hearing has already been scheduled at the Magistrate’s Court of the Kyiv Judicial District of Simferopol.

The reason for the detention of Crimean lawyer Emil Kurbedinov was a Telegram post. On July 14, 2023, Emil published a post in his Telegram channel, where he emphasized that studying at a university is a reason for postponing service in the russian army. russian special services consider this an administrative offense (Article 13.15 of the Code of the russian federation, Part 9). Most likely, the russian special services are preparing a base in order to deprive Kurbedinov of his license.

Taking into account that Emil was detained immediately at the exit after the investigative measures, it can be assumed that this was an agreement of the special services and employees of the Centre. The latter immediately took Emil Kurbedinov to the police station. 

“Emil called; he was leaving investigative activities. Roman Filatov and Ruslan Shambazov, employees of the Centre for Combating Extremism, met him and told him to go with them”, — his wife Diana Kurbedinova said.

In addition, the representatives of the special service claim that there were no witnesses during the arrest, despite the fact that the lawyer’s wife was sitting in the car. Emil’s defence lawyer was not present at the time of the arrest. 

We would like to remind you that Filatov and Shambazov took part in other administrative cases against lawyers and human rights defenders. This is not the first time russian special services have persecuted lawyers. In 2021, lawyer Edem Semedliaiev was fined and sent under administrative arrest. A year later, the occupation authorities detained four Crimean lawyers at once: Edem Semedliaiev, Nazim Sheikhmambetov, Aider Azamatov and Emine Avamilieva.