Emil Kurbedinov, a Crimean Tatar lawyer who defends political prisoners in Kremlin-controlled courts in Russian-occupied Crimea, was detained on Dec. 6 by the officers of the Anti-terrorist Center of Russia’s Interior Ministry.
Kurbedinov’s detention was reported on Facebook by Refat Chubarov, the head of the Crimean Tatar representative body the Mejilis, which is now operating in exile.
The Russian authorities accuse Kurbedinov of promoting extremism.
“(Kurbedinov) allegedly posted a picture with a symbol of an organization banned in Russia on Facebook in 2013,”Anton Naumlyuk, a Crimea-based reporter for the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, wrote on Facebook on Dec. 6.
“Going by his case materials, a man named Muhamed Salem, who used to live in Crimea but now lives in Damascus, Syria, reported Kurbeninov to the authorities,” Naumlyuk wrote.
Kurbedinov has defended dozens of Crimean Tatar activists and Ukrainians imprisoned by the Kremlin on sham charges since it invaded and started its occupation of Crimea in 2014. More than 90 Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars are currently imprisoned in Crimea and Russia for political reasons.
Kurbedinov was also one of the Crimean Tatar lawyers who agreed to defend the 24 Ukrainian sailors Russia captured after it openly attacked three Ukrainian navy boats on Nov. 25 in the Black Sea near the Kerch Strait.
After two days of sham trials, the Ukrainian sailors placed in detention for two months, and then taken from Crimea to Moscow’s Lefortovo and Matrosskaya Tyshina pre-trial detention centers on Nov.30.
This is not the first time the Kremlin has had Kurbedinov arrested. In February 2017, Kurbedinov was sentenced to 10 days in prison for allegedly promoting extremism.
The reason for his arrest this time appears to be his re-posting of a video of a 2013 protest led by Hizbut-Tahrir, an international pan-Islamic political organization, which aims to reestablish an Islamic caliphate. The organization is banned in Russia, but not in Ukraine.
In May 2017 Kurbedinov won the 2017 Front Line Defenders prize, an annual award for human rights defenders who are at risk.
“When we defend political prisoners and persecuted activists, we’re going against a system in which there’s no hope of a fair trial,” Kurbedinov said at the award ceremony in Dublin, Ireland, on May 26, 2017.
“Winning an acquittal for my clients is almost impossible – but what I can do is show them that, despite the risks, I will not abandon them.”
