07 November 2024

The Occupation Security Forces Conduct Illegal Searches of Lawyers Rustem Kiamiliev and Lili Hemedzhi

This morning in Simferopol, security forces of the occupation administration forcibly entered the homes of Rustem Kiamiliev and Lili Hemedzhi, lawyers with the  Crimean Solidarity civic movement, conducting illegal searches. According to Crimean Solidarity, the searches were carried out by representatives of the so-called “Center for Combating Extremism” based on an order from an occupation “court.”

After the search, Rustem Kiamiliev was detained and taken to the “Center for Combating Extremism.” Security forces confiscated the phones of his daughter and other family members, and during the first hour after the search, family members were not allowed to move freely within the house and were given no explanation for the grounds of the search. The detained man’s brother was threatened with illegal conscription, further exemplifying the pressure exerted on the families of human rights defenders.

On March 20, 2023, upon the initiative of the so-called “Crimean Bar Association,” the legal licenses of Rustem Kiamiliev and Lili Hemedzhi were revoked. In May 2023, occupation security forces issued unlawful warnings to Kiamiliev and Hemedzhi about the “inadmissibility of violating the so-called ‘law on assemblies.'” Similar warnings were issued to other activists of Crimean Solidarity.

The illegal searches and other actions by occupation security forces targeting activists and lawyers defending the rights of Ukrainian citizens in occupied Crimea are a blatant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. Such actions aim to suppress any form of civic activity, intimidate the population, and restrict human rights advocacy on the peninsula. They serve as a tool of political pressure systematically used to persecute those who openly support the rights of the Crimean Tatar people and Ukrainian citizens.