An activist from Dagestan who condemned the war in Ukraine was declared a political prisoner
In 2024, Ulkyar Hashimova, a resident of Dagestan, was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for comments in a Telegram channel against the Russian authorities and in support of Ukraine. The independent human rights project "Memorial" recognized the girl as a political prisoner.
Ulkyar Hashimov was accused of public appeals for terrorist and extremist activities. She spoke in support of Ukraine and for the independence of the peoples of the Russian Federation.
In May 2023, a court in Moscow arrested Hashimov for 15 days on the charge of disobeying the request of a representative of the authorities when crossing the state border. She tried to fly abroad from the Sheremetyevo airport to Belgrade, so that during the transfer she would request political asylum in the Netherlands. After her detention, she was sent to Dagestan by plane. Hashimov was accused of publishing several comments in Telegram chats. At the end of December 2022, according to the investigation, she wrote the phrases "Military enlistment offices need to be blown up" and "The same applies to the administration of the police prosecutor's office" on the Belgorod-Dodonnia channel. The investigation qualified these recordings as public calls for terrorism.
"We believe that the criminal case against Hashimova was initiated for statements in support of Ukraine. Formally, Ulkyar's words about the explosions of military enlistment centers and other state structures can be seen as calls for violence, however, we believe that the court did not take into account their context and did not take into account that in reality they do not represent a significant danger to society. Hashimova left her comments because of the aggressive war that Russia unleashed against Ukraine. In the same way, the court did not take into account the context and did not assess the public danger of the comment "Death to Russian fascists" attributed to Hashimova. We consider it not as a call to action, but as a slogan wishing to defeat Russia. We believe that such a statement does not give grounds for prosecution under the criminal article on extremism," human rights activists said.
