Russian Court Sentences Crimean Journalist to 19 Years in Prison

A military tribunal in Rostov-on-Don, a city in southeastern Russia, convicted and sentenced journalist Remzi Bekirov to 19 years in prison on the charge of “organizing a terrorist group.”

Bekirov and fellow Crimean journalist Osman Arifmemetov were detained in Rostov-on-Don March 27, 2019. According to a census published by The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in December 2021, Russia had imprisoned at least four additional journalists in retaliation for their work in Crimea.

“While Ukrainian, Russian and foreign journalists risk their lives to cover the war in Ukraine, Moscow continues to undermine independent journalism in Crimea,” said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of Reporters Without Borders’ Eastern Europe and Central Asia network. “Remzi Bekirov’s long sentence on a trumped-up charge, combined with Vladislav Yesypenko’s a few weeks ago, is a barely veiled Kremlin warning to the region’s journalists. We condemn this decision and demand his immediate release.”

Yesypenko, the journalist mentioned, was arrested in March 2021, tortured, and later convicted of “possession and transport of explosives” in February 2022. He was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 110,000 roubles (€1,200).

Bekirov, an ethnic Crimean Tatar, covered the Russian government’s annexing of Crimea as well as the subsequent raids Russian authorities conducted on ethnic Crimean Tatars. He also regularly joined forces with Ukrainian human rights activists to provide a complete picture on Russia’s persecution of the Tatar population.

Other journalists currently being detained for their work in Russia include Alexander Valov (in captivity since 2018), Abdulmumin Gadzhiev (2019), Rashid Maysigov (2019), Ivan Safronov (2020), Ian Katelevski (2020) and Aleksander Dorogov (2020).  A 65-year-old journalist, Aleksandr Tolmachev, died in Orenburg correctional colony no. 9 from a lack of proper medical care one month before his scheduled release.