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).
Master of Islamic Sciences, Crimean Tatar Vadim Bektemirov, sentenced to 11 years in prison, was transferred from prison in Yelets (Lipetsk region) to another colony. The family of the political prisoner has not received any news about him for more than a month and does not know where he is.
The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation responded to the relatives of the convicted person that “it does not maintain centralized personal records of persons serving sentences in places of deprivation of liberty and persons held in pre-trial detention centers.”
Vadim Bektemirov – Master’s degree in “Islamic teachings” at the Faculty of Arabic Literature and Humanities. Before his arrest, he conducted prayers in support of the families of political prisoners and organized assistance to arrested Crimean Tatars. Bektemirov was charged with participation in the activities of the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Russia. On the territory of Ukraine and most countries of the world, the organization operates without restrictions at the level of national legislation.