A Crimean Tatar political prisoner, Asan Akhtemov, said Russian police beat and tortured him with electric shocks on Sept. 4, to force him to confess to a crime he did not commit.
Akhtemov was arrested on Sept. 3, along with his brother, Aziz Akhtemov, and deputy-head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis Nariman Dzhelyal. All are accused of damaging a gas pipeline in a small Crimean village.
The suspects and their lawyers say that the charges have been fabricated to give Russian authorities an excuse to crack down.
Since the Kremlin annexed Crimea in 2014, it has been targeting Crimean Tatars on the peninsula because this indigenous community has actively opposed the occupation.
Dzhelyal is thought to have been targeted for his attendance of the Crimea Platform summit, Ukraine’s diplomatic initiative to end Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
Independent lawyers weren’t allowed to see Akhtemov for several days after his arrest. During that time, Russian police published a video of the two brothers allegedly confessing to deliberately damaging the pipeline.
Ten days after the arrest, lawyer Ayder Azamatov was able to see Asan Akhtemov at a pre-trial detention center. Akhtemov narrated the story of what happened to him, which the lawyer wrote down.
The full text of the letter was obtained by a Ukrainian media outlet Graty.
“When they led me (to a room in an unknown location), these people constantly threatened me that weapons and drugs would be planted on me, they said that my wife was beautiful and hinted that they could also harm her,” the letter said.
“After they put me on a chair and tied me up, they hung bare wires over my ears, after which I felt a strong electric shock. In time it lasted about ten seconds. And so about six or seven times. After that, the current discharges started little by little and at the same time they talked to me. When the current was applied, I was shaking constantly…They threatened me that I would never leave this place.”
“After these threats and electric shocks, I told them that I would agree with everything they told me,” the letter said.
Next, Akhtemov was hit in the neck and on the head multiple times. A man in military uniform, who introduced himself as a doctor, told him he had to confess.
“They took off my mask and I saw a video camera. The man who called himself a doctor told me that now they will turn on the camera and I will have to say everything as needed, or no one else will talk to me again – this is my last chance.”
A screenshot from a video released by the Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which shows the Crimean Tatar political prisoner Asan Akhtemov confessing to sabotaging a gas pipeline in Crimea. Akhtemov later told his lawyer that he was beaten and tortured with electric shocks by Russian security officials who forced him to confess on video. (Courtesy)
The Russian Federal Security Service released the confessions on Sept. 7.
In the video, first Asan Akhtemov, and then his brother Aziz Akhtemov, confess to sabotaging the pipeline. Their faces are blurred.
“This is standard practice. Legally, these videos cannot be accepted as evidence,” Nikolai Polozov, the lawyer of Nariman Dzhelyal who was arrested along with Akhtemov brothers, told the Kyiv Post.
“It’s a manipulative attempt by the authorities to create public opinion.”
