“Court” in Crimea rejects political prisoner Zekiriayev’s complaint about inhumane detention conditions

This is reported by the Crimean Solidarity with reference to lawyer Rustem Kiamilev, Ukrinform reports.

“On April 10, the Bakhchisarai District Court of Crimea considered an administrative lawsuit of Server Zekiriayev, sentenced to 13 years in prison, against the Penitentiary Colony No. 1 of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service in the Tula region. The lawsuit concerned “unbearable conditions of detention” in the single cell type facility”, - it is said in the message.

Kiamilev noted that his client complained about conditions “that can be characterized as torture”. 

“There is a constant stench due to the proximity of sewer manholes. The grounds for placing him in the ECTC are formal - he violated the regime, did not wear a cap or did not say hello,” - Kiamilev emphasized.

Zekiriayev told Judge Oleksandr Skisov that sewer manholes are located two to three meters from the window of his cell in the ECTC, where he has been kept for over a year. “I would wake up vomiting,” the political prisoner said.

The judge dismissed the political prisoner's administrative claim. The defense plans to file an appeal to the “Supreme Court” of Crimea.

Prior to his imprisonment, Server Zekiriayev worked as a physical education teacher and was engaged in floriculture. He has 13 children.

As reported, in October 2017, Russian security forces arrested six residents of Bakhchisarai, including Server Zekiriayev. The Russian FSB charged them with participation in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which is banned in Russia. 

In September 2020, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, passed a verdict in the second Bakhchisarai Hizb ut-Tahrir case. Server Zekiriayev was sentenced to 13 years in prison. 

The political prisoner's wife claimed that Zekiriayev was being tortured in a Russian prison.