A Crimean Tatar activist Aziz Akhtemov, who was sentenced to 13 years, was transferred from a prison in the Krasnoyarsk Territory to an unknown destination. According to his wife, Adile Akhmetova, she was refused information about where her husband was currently being held.

“They explained this by the fact that they have the right not to provide such information to third parties. At the moment, there is no information about where my husband is and in what direction he is being taken,” the spouse said.

In 2022, brothers Asan and Aziz Akhmetov, as well as the first deputy head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Nariman Dzhelal, were sentenced to terms ranging from 13 to 17 years in a maximum security penal colony. The investigation believes that they participated in the explosion of a gas pipeline in the village of Perevalnoye in Crimea on the instructions of the Ukrainian special services.

The defendants stated that after their arrest they were tortured with electric shocks, demanding confessions from them. They did not admit their guilt.

Lawyers said that at the appeal stage the court closed the trial to the audience, and the principles of openness and transparency were effectively ignored. During the interrogation of a secret witness, the court reminded him that he could refuse to answer certain questions from the lawyers. In addition, the defense was denied the opportunity to re-conduct several examinations.