25 April 2025

My Deportation. Reports of a Crimean Journalist Written in Detention: Pre-sale of Osman Arifmemetov’s Book Launched

On April 24, the ZMINA Human Rights Center announced the opening of pre-orders for a new book by Crimean civic journalist and political prisoner Osman Arifmemetov, My Deportation. Reports of a Crimean Journalist Written in Detention. The book is being prepared for publication by the Ukrainian publishing house Vikhola, with the official release scheduled for May 21, 2025.

The collection focuses on a series of reports written by Osman Arifmemetov during his unlawful imprisonment by the Russian Federation. These texts were sent from pre-trial detention centers in Simferopol, Rostov-on-Don, and Novocherkassk, as well as from the penal colony in Minusinsk, where the journalist is currently serving his sentence. According to human rights defenders, Arifmemetov was sentenced in 2022 by a Russian court to 14 years in prison on fabricated charges and is now held in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, more than 5,000 kilometers from Crimea.

Osman Arifmemetov is one of the first civic journalists in Crimea and a member of Crimean Solidarity. Since 2015, he has reported on unlawful searches, judicial persecution, and other human rights violations in occupied Crimea. His first prison reports were published by the outlet Graty, documenting conditions in pre-trial detention centers, systematic violations of detainees’ rights, and cases of abuse and fabrication that underpin the repressive system operating in Crimea since 2014.

The foreword to the book was written by Nariman Dzhelyal, First Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and a former political prisoner. The afterword, which contains a biography of the author, was prepared by Tetiana Pechonchyk, Head of the ZMINA Human Rights Center. The collection also includes contributions from Osman Arifmemetov’s journalist colleagues: Taras Ibrahimov, Oleksandra Yefymenko, Alyona Savchuk, and Remzi Bekirov. The editors of the volume are journalist Ailin Ametova and ZMINA human rights project manager Viktoriia Nesterenko. The Ukrainian translation was done by Mariia Horbach.

You can place a pre-order for the book on the official website of the Vikhola publishing house. The publication combines journalism, documentary testimony, and the voice of Crimean Tatar resistance.