On September 21, the Supreme Court of Crimea in Simferopol sentenced the deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, Nariman Dzhelyalov, and activists Asan and Aziz Akhtemov. They were sentenced to 17, 15 and 13 years of imprisonment in a maximum security colony, respectively.
Thus, Judge Viktor Zinkov gave Dzhelyalov an even more severe punishment than was demanded by the prosecutor, who in the debate spoke about 15 years in prison.
As Dosh wrote earlier, Dzhelyalov and his cousins Akhtemov were accused of blowing up a gas pipeline in the village of Perevalnoye under the supervision of Ukrainian intelligence. As a result of the explosion, the military unit of the Coast Guard of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was left without gas, which the investigation qualified as an undermining of Russia's defense capability. The suspects were detained in Crimea in September 2021. For more than a day, relatives and lawyers did not know where they were. Later it turned out that Asan Akhtemov was taken to the forest, threatened with execution, and tortured with electric shock, demanding to sign a confession.
“The criminal prosecution against me, an activist of the Crimean Tatar national movement, is aimed at outlawing and labeling the entire system of representative bodies of the Crimean Tatars as “terrorism.” And thereby open the way to mass repressions against the indigenous people of Crimea,” Nariman Dzhelyalov said in his last word.
“Despite the time we will have to spend in prison, I am sure that we will not give up and will fight for our convictions, for justice. Repressions against the Crimean Tatar people will soon come to an end. I believe in it,” said Asan Akhtemov.
The defense called the criminal case a falsification, the evidence inadmissible and has already appealed the verdict. A date for hearing the appeals has not yet been set.
42-year-old Nariman Dzhelyalov graduated from the Institute of Social Sciences of Odessa National University with a master's degree in political science. He worked as a journalist, was the author and presenter of political programs, editor and news announcer on the First Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR. Since 2007, he became a delegate of the Kurultai and a member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. In 2012, he became a candidate for deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In March 2015, he became the first deputy chairman of the Mejlis. After Crimea was annexed to Russia and the leaders of the Crimean Tatar people were prohibited from entering its territory, Dzhelyalov actively commented on the situation in Crimea for Ukrainian and international media. At the end of August 2021, he attended the international summit “Crimean Platform” in Kyiv. A few days after this, he was detained at his home in the village of Pervomaiskoye, Simferopol district.
The Mejlis has been banned in Russia since 2016 as an extremist organization.