The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns the forced transfer illegally convicted Ukrainian citizens Nariman Dzhelyal, Asan and Aziz Akhtemov from the temporarily occupied Crimea to the Russian Federation to serve their sentences.

Nariman Dzhelyal is the First deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, which has been banned in Crimea since 2016 as an "extremist organization". Aziz and Asan Akhtemov are Crimean Tatar activists. All three were detained by the security forces of the occupation administration in September 2021 on trumped-up charges. In the fall of the same year, Nariman Dzhelyal and the Akhtemov brothers were additionally accused of crimes they did not commit.

After almost a year of "investigation" of the so-called "criminal cases", on 21 September, 2022, the Russian occupation administration sentenced Nariman Dzhelyal to 17 years of imprisonment in a high-security prison, a fine of 700 thousand rubles and 1 year and 6 months of restricted freedom of movement. Asan Akhtemov was sentenced to 15 years in prison with a fine of 500,000 rubles and 1 year of restriction of freedom of movement. Aziz Akhtemov was sentenced to 13 years in prison, a fine of 500,000 rubles and restriction of freedom of movement for 1 year.

The Russian occupation administration in the Ukrainian Crimea since the moment of the temporary occupation launched a purposeful repressive campaign, the goal of which was to eradicate all forms of disloyalty. One of the main victims of the repressions was the indigenous people of Crimea - the Crimean Tatars, hundreds of whom suffered various forms of persecution on ethnic, political, and religious grounds.

The Russian Federation must implement the resolution of the UN General Assembly "Situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine", adopted on 15 December, 2022, which requires the release of illegally detained Ukrainians.

We call on the international community and partners of Ukraine, including within the framework of the International Crimea Platform, to continue exerting pressure on Russia, to immediately release all Ukrainian citizens illegally imprisoned by the Russian occupation administration in Crimea, and to introduce new sanctions restrictions on officials involved in persecution of Ukrainian citizens.