Crimean blogger and activist Nariman Memedeminov has been released from Russian prison after 2.5 years.
Taras Malyshevsky, the Ukrainian consul general in Rostov-on-Don, and consul Yuri Dovgulya, along with lawyers Emil Kurbedinov and Edem Semedlyaev, met Memedeminov upon his release on Sept. 21.
The blogger served time in Russian colony № 8 in the village of Sadkovsky in Russia’s Rostov Oblast.
Russian law enforcement raided Memedeminov’s house in the village Kholmovka in Crimea and detained him on March 22, 2018. He was convicted of public calls for terrorist activities using the internet on Oct. 2, 2019.
An investigator of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that, in 2013-2014, Memedeminov had posted videos on his YouTube channel calling for terrorist attacks. Memedeminov denied the allegations.
The first video, posted on June 7, 2013, was dedicated to a rally of Hizb ut-Tahrir — called “One Ummah – One Flag” — held in Simferopol on June 6. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Islamic fundamentalist organization that is prohibited in Russia, but legal in Ukraine and much of the West.
The second video, published on October 10, 2013, was titled “A rally instead of a conference.” It was dedicated to a forum that Hizb ut-Tahrir didn’t hold because its participants did not have access to the building of the Ukrainian Theater of Simferopol.
The third video, posted on March 25, 2014, was titled in English: “Support to Muslims of Central Africa – Crimea.” In it, he expressed solidarity with the Muslims of Central Africa, who he said suffered from “ethnic cleansing.”
In July 2019, two FSB officers testified in court that Memedeminov was arrested due to his reports from hearings in criminal cases against Crimean Tatars, which he regarded as politically motivated.
In response to Memedeminov’s conviction, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea — a Ukrainian prosecutorial authority in exile — opened criminal proceedings into the illegal imprisonment of Memedeminov.
“All his activities were aimed at transmitting all information about the repressions against our people (Crimean Tatars) in Crimea to the general public,” human rights activist Lilya Gemeji told Ukrainian media outlet Crimean Realities.
On Sept. 16, a Russian court sentenced seven Crimean Tatars to long prison terms for their alleged connection to Hizb ut-Tahrir.
