Crimean Tatar activist Eldar Kantimirov was transferred from Dimitrovgrad prison to Penal Colony No. 8 in Buryatia. The transfer lasted a month.

“The transfer was difficult. Eldar was placed in dirty cells in the pretrial detention center, which are never cleaned, since people sit there for several days, a week at most, and then move on,” said the activist’s wife.

The colony is located more than 7,000 kilometers from the prisoner’s home. Kantimirov and his family assume that he was transferred so far due to conflicts with the Dimitrovgrad prison administration. The prisoner sued the institution because he was repeatedly sent to the punishment cell.

Another Crimean Tatar political prisoner, Bilyal Adilov, was transferred to IK-1 in the city of Kyzyl in the Republic of Tyva. According to his wife Gulnara Adilova, the man reported his preparations for the transfer back in August, and only at the end of October did the family learn of his whereabouts.

“Two months of uncertainty and broken doors… We contacted all the authorities that the lawyers advised us to, but we still have not received an answer,” Adilova shared.

Both defendants were charged with participating in the Muslim political party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation. Kantimirov was sentenced to 12 years, Adilov to 14.

Since January 2015, criminal cases on Hizb ut-Tahrir have been opened en masse in Crimea, which has come under the de facto control of Russia. According to human rights activists, party members are being persecuted not for preparing a coup d'etat or terrorism, but for public actions against political repression in Crimea, systematic criticism of the Russian authorities, and mass disloyalty among Crimean Tatars in response to the events of 2014.
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