Russia holds captive over 208 Crimean political prisoners

Today, on the Day of Resistance to Occupation of Crimea, PEN Ukraine and The Ukrainians Media, in cooperation with the Vivat Publishing House and Human Rights Center ZMINA, launch a special project dedicated to free voices of Crimea.

February 26 marks the Day of Resistance to Occupation of Crimea. On this day 10 years ago, thousands of Ukrainians, including Crimean Tatars, went to a rally in Simferopol to stand for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

The occupation resulted in illegal persecutions and repressions. Among the political prisoners held by Russia, 149 people are imprisoned, 33 detained, 26 have no legal status. 125 of these 208 people are Crimean Tatars. Among them there are 16 journalists, bloggers, and civic journalists. These figures, as of February 2, 2024, were provided by the Crimean Platform.

PEN Ukraine and The Ukrainians Media, in cooperation with the Vivat Publishing House and Human Rights Center ZMINA, launch a special project dedicated to free voices of Crimea. This is a series of stories about politically imprisoned journalists.

The first text portrait is that of Nariman Celal. He is a Crimean Tatar journalist and politician, and a political prisoner. In 2013, he was a deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (which is the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars) and headed the information and analysis department.

He was detained on September 4, 2021, and found allegedly guilty of sabotaging the use of a gas pipeline in the village of Perevalne. On that very day, he and his four Crimean Tatar colleagues were presented the suspicion implying 10-to-12-year sentence. The full text of the portrait can be found at The Ukrainians Media website.

The stories will be published in Ukrainian and English languages at The Ukrainians Media website.