A Crimean Tatar journalist was taken from pretrial detention center for surgery; his family doesn't know where he is

Citizen journalist Vilen Temeryanov, sentenced to 14 years in prison, has been transferred from Rostov-on-Don's Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 to a hospital. This was reported by his wife, Elmaz Temeryanova.

Elmaz learned of her husband's whereabouts from the wife of one of his cellmates. She doesn't know Vilen's exact location. According to her, she was told that her husband had been taken for surgery to remove a lipoma, the existence of which she had previously been unaware.

An attempt to obtain information by phone from Rostov-on-Don's Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 was unsuccessful. Staff refused to provide information, but upon learning of a possible transfer to a hospital, advised the prisoner to contact them directly. The Multidisciplinary Hospital for Prisoners (MOTB-19) stated that they would provide information only after an official request.

Elmaz Temeryanova expressed concern over her lack of contact with her husband, which had been interrupted for more than two weeks, and lamented that waiting for an official response could take a long time.

As a reminder, the case against the "first Dzhankoy group," which includes Enver Krosh, Vilen Temeryanov, Rinat Aliyev, Seityaga Abbozov, and Edem Bekirov, was opened in August 2022. They were arrested on charges of involvement in the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Russia.

The key evidence in the case was an audio recording from 2015, which featured discussions of religious rituals (prayer and fasting). Lawyer Emil Kurbedinov noted that the recording was retrieved from the archives eight years later and contains no mention of terrorism or extremism, calling into question the validity of the criminal cases.

In November 2025, the court sentenced the Crimean Tatars: Enver Krosh received 19 years, Edem Bekirov and Rinat Aliyev received 15 years each, Vilen Temeryanov received 14 years, and Seityaga Abbozov received 13 years in prison.

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