It was nine days after armed and masked men burst into the homes of Asan Akhtemov and his cousin, Aziz Akhtemov, that the men were finally able to see independent lawyers. Both men have retracted their videoed ‘confessions’ and have given details of the torture and threats, including to Asan’s wife, that their Russian FSB captors used to obtain them.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Halya Coynash: Harrowing details of Crimean Tatar’s torture seized in revenge for ‘Crimea Platform’
Russian security forces detain Crimean Tatar activist Eldar Azizov, who came to the Russia’s Federal Security Service in Simferopol, the second-largest city in Kremlin-occupied Crimea, on Sept. 4, 2021, to demand to know the whereabouts of five Crimean Tatars detained earlier. During a 48-hour period, Russian police detained more than 60 people on the peninsula, mostly Crimean Tatars, as revenge for the international Crimea Platform summit that Ukraine hosted on Aug. 23 in Kyiv.