Elena Patyaeva—a friend of Seda Suleymanova, who disappeared three years ago after being forcibly returned from St. Petersburg to Chechnya—was detained in Grozny. On August 23, Patyaeva stood by the monument to journalists who died for freedom of speech, holding a sign that read: "I demand an investigation into the murder of Seda Suleymanova." This was reported by the human rights project "Slovo Zashchite" (Word for the Defense).
International organizations that protect the rights of journalists came out in support of the correspondent of Crimean Solidarity and Grani.ru Kulamet Ibraimov and the correspondent of the publication Grati and human rights activist Lutfiye Zudiyeva. They were detained on July 27 after they arrived at the building of the Supreme Court in Crimea to consider an appeal in the case of the Crimean Tatar politician Nariman Dzhelal and the Akhtemov brothers.
At least eight journalistic and human rights organizations demanded that all charges against journalists be dropped, that Ibraimov be released, that Zudiyeva be fined, and that the persecution of media representatives in Crimea be stopped. Among others, these are the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ, USA), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ, Belgium), Reporters Without Borders (France), the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU, Ukraine), the International Foundation for the Defense of Human Rights Defenders (FLD, Ireland ), Women in journalism (Women in journalism, Austria).
Recall that Lutfiye Zudiev and Kulamet Ibraimov were detained in Simferopol near the building of the Supreme Court of Crimea, despite the fact that they had editorial assignments and press cards. They and 12 other people - relatives, friends of Nariman Dzhelal and the Akhtemov brothers - were taken to the police department.
Zudiev was fined 12,000 rubles for “organizing or calling for mass simultaneous stay of citizens in public places.” Ibraimov was arrested for five days, as he was repeatedly involved under this article.