Statement of human rights organisations on the inhumane conditions of detention of citizen journalist Remzi Bekirov in a Russian colony

Remzi Bekirov, a Ukrainian citizen illegally convicted by Russia, is being systematically pressured in penal colony No. 33 in Abakan (Republic of Khakassia, Russia), placed in a punishment cell, forbidden to communicate with his family and threatened.

Remzi Bekirov is a citizen journalist, activist of the Crimean Solidarity, and a correspondent for the online publication Grani.ru. He was detained on March 28, 2019 in a trumped-up case of “organising the activities of a terrorist organisation”. On March 10, 2022, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Bekirov to 19 years in prison, serving the first five years in prison. The court also ordered him to be deprived of liberty for a year and a half after serving his sentence.

Before his arrest, Remzi Bekirov covered politically motivated cases in Crimea, including the case of Vedzhie Kashka, a veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement, the detention of Metropolitan Klyment of Simferopol and the Crimean Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and attended the trials of the participants in the Hizb ut-Tahrir cases. During his illegal detention, he was held in pre-trial detention facility No. 1 in Simferopol, the pre-trial detention centre in Rostov-on-Don and in prison No. 2 in Yeniseysk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, located 5,000 km from the Crimean peninsula. In July 2024, he was transferred to penal colony No. 33 in Abakan in the Republic of Khakassia.

Since the transfer of Remzi Bekirov to the colony in Abakan, where he arrived in early August, the administration of the institution has systematically and unreasonably placed him into a punishment cell. The political prisoner is also prohibited from writing letters to his family and making calls. The last time he was able to contact his wife was before he arrived at the colony, when he was in the transit point in pre-trial detention facility No. 1 in Abakan. At the same time, colony No. 33 is located 4,500 kilometres from Crimea, and such a distance from his home is a violation of Remzi Bekirov’s right to maintain family ties.

In accordance with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the administration of the places of detention should facilitate communication between convicts and their close relatives. This distance significantly complicates the family’s access to Remzi Bekirov. (Previously, the political prisoner’s wife was refused to be informed where her husband was being transferred, allegedly because of the law on personal data). In addition, the climate in the Republic of Khakassia is quite different from the Crimean. This poses a serious challenge to the health of a person who has lived in the southern region all his life.

At the end of February of this year, while Remzi Bekirov was still in Yeniseysk prison, the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation (FPS) refused to transfer him to a colony closer to his home. Bekirov asked to be transferred to the Rostov region, but the transfer is impossible. Bekirov was also denied a transfer to the Stavropol Krai, and was told that he would be able to appeal the place of his transfer only after he was transferred to the colony. According to the ECtHR decisions, the refusal to transfer the applicant to a prison located closer to his parents’ home constitutes a violation of Article 8 of the Convention (right to respect for private and family life).

The Russian Federation, as the occupying power of a part of the territory of Ukraine and a party to the international armed conflict, arrogantly ignores the norms of international humanitarian law and systematically violates the human rights of Ukrainian citizens protected by the Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Through politically motivated persecutions, arbitrary detentions, illegal trials in the occupied Crimea, deportations of political prisoners to the territory of the Russian Federation and disregard for their condition in detention, Russia systematically violates its obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law and commits war crimes. 

The transfer of the illegally imprisoned citizen journalist Remzi Bekirov, his cruel and inhuman treatment, threats and almost constant detention in a punishment cell are a continuation of the pressure and human rights violations by Russian officials. 

We call on the Russian authorities: 

• release political prisoner Remzi Bekirov;
• release other political prisoners illegally detained on the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea, other temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and the Russian Federation;
• cease the use of torture, cruel and inhuman treatment and systematic human rights violations against illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens;
• cease to apply the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;
• cease the persecution of people in the temporarily occupied territories for expressing their views, journalistic activities, activism and religion.

We call on the Ukrainian authorities:

• send an appeal to the administration of the penal colony with a demand to conduct an inspection and ensure the observance of Remzi Bekirov’s rights (FPS/Directorate of FPS: FPS in the Republic of Khakassia, 655017, Molodezhny Quarter, 22, Khakassia, city of Abakan; Head of the institution: Lieutenant Colonel of the Internal Service Chyzh Oleksandr Oleksandrovych; contacts: +7 (39022) 27-10-83, ik33@19.fsin.gov.ru); 
• include political prisoner Remzi Bekirov in the exchange lists and actively promote the issue of his release;
• ensure an effective investigation into the circumstances of the unlawful detention and non-compliance with fair trial standards in relation to Ukrainian citizen Remzi Bekirov;
• develop an effective mechanism for the release of arbitrarily detained civilians and advocate for their return;
• impose individual sanctions against Russian officials involved in the unlawful detention, cruel and inhuman treatment and other human rights violations against Ukrainian citizen Remzi Bekirov.

We call on foreign governments and international organisations:

• send an appeal to the administration of the penal colony with a demand to conduct an inspection and ensure the observance of Remzi Bekirov’s rights (FPS/Directorate of FPS: FPS in the Republic of Khakassia, 655017, Molodezhny Quarter, 22, Khakassia, city of Abakan; Head of the institution: Lieutenant Colonel of the Internal Service Chyzh Oleksandr Oleksandrovych; contacts: +7 (39022) 27-10-83, ik33@19.fsin.gov.ru); 
• send requests to the authorised persons of the Russian Federation demanding the immediate release of the illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizen Remzi Bekirov;  
• act as a mediator in the process of releasing civilians arbitrarily detained by the Russian Federation;
• fully support Ukraine in the liberation of all temporarily occupied territories, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol;
• impose individual sanctions against Russian officials involved in the illegal detention, cruel and inhuman treatment and other human rights violations against Ukrainian citizen Remzi Bekirov;
• increase diplomatic, sanctions and other types of pressure on the RF in order to prevent new gross human rights violations against Ukrainian citizens in the territory of the RF and the territories occupied by it;
• fully support Ukraine to ensure the de-occupation of the territories within its internationally recognised borders.

Human Rights Centre ZMINA

Crimean Human Rights Group

Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin

NGO CrimeaSOS

Center for Civil Liberties

Civic Union Human Rights House Crimea

Ukrainian Centre of PEN International