Prison guards beat a Crimean Tatar political prisoner
In the Russian Vladimir Central prison, FSIN officers beat up Crimean Tatar activist Asan Yanikov.
According to his sister, Asan asked twice about the possibility of picking up groceries. He was refused, and then security officers approached him and hit his head twice on the concrete with all their might. After the blow, the prisoner began to have a severe headache.
Yanikov told his sister that he did not provoke or resist the prison staff. At the same time, he wants to make public what happened, since his fellow believers are sitting with him and he does not want beatings to be the norm.
Asan Yanikov is an activist who has attended courts in politically motivated cases in Crimea. He went out on a single picket to protest against persecution on ethnic and religious grounds.
In 2019, a man was detained by Russian security forces after searches in his house. In 2023, a court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
Many Crimean Tatars are considered unreliable by Russian authorities. They support Ukraine and criticize the Russian authorities. Criminal cases are being brought against them en masse for membership in the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, which is recognized as a terrorist organization.
