Asan Akhtemov has been held prisoner in a ‘quarantine cell’ in occupied Simferopol for 44 days without any medical grounds, yet with no end in sight. Initially the move seemed aimed solely at making it difficult to record evidence of the torture believed to have been used to extract a videoed ‘confession’. Akhtemov’s lawyers assume that the FSB are continuing to hold him in supposed ‘quarantine’ in order to escalate the pressure on him, through maximum isolation and especially intolerable conditions. Asan Akhtemov and his cousin Aziz Akhtemov were seized on Sept. 4, just hours before the arrest of Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Nariman Dzhelyal and the only ‘evidence’ for the absurd ‘sabotage’ charges laid against them are the ‘confessions’ from the two cousins made while they were held incommunicado and prevented from seeing independent lawyers.
Crimean Platform
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Halya Coynash: Russia punishes Crimean Tatar who exposed FSB torture
Asan Akhtemov, who was arrested by Russian authorities in occupied Crimea on Sept. 3 on suspicion of damaging a gas pipeline, stands holding a Crimean Tatar flag. Akhmetov said tha he was beaten and tortured with electric shocks, when the Russian police were forcing him to confess.
