03 February 2025

Servet Haziiev Has Been Transferred from “Vladimir Central Prison,” Family Is Unaware of His Whereabouts

In December 2024, 64-year-old Crimean Tatar political prisoner Servet Haziiev, unlawfully sentenced by a Russian court to 13 years of imprisonment, was transferred from “Vladimir Central Prison” (Prison No. 2 in Vladimir region). Since then, his family has had no information regarding his whereabouts. His sister, Svitlana Abliamitova, reported this, according to Crimean Solidarity.

According to Abliamitova, she last communicated with her brother in early December. During a phone call via the Zonatelecom service, Haziiev informed her that he “could be transferred from the prison to a penal colony at any moment.” After this call, she immediately transferred funds to his account to cover necessary travel expenses, but she did not receive any replies to her subsequent letters.

“I wrote him a letter on December 19 to confirm if he had received the money, but there was no response. I thought writing might be difficult for him due to health issues. After suffering a stroke in 2021 and being beaten in a psychiatric hospital, where his beard was forcibly shaved and his collarbone dislocated, he experienced pain in his right arm and numbness in his fingers,” Svitlana Abliamitova recounted.

In January, she sent another letter but again received no reply. Upon contacting the prison’s accounting office, she was informed that her brother was no longer there as he had been transferred. No information was provided regarding his destination or the date of the transfer. On January 28, Abliamitova submitted official inquiries to the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and its regional office in Vladimir region, demanding to know where her gravely ill brother had been sent.

“For over a month now, I have no idea where he is, and there has been no word from him,” she said.

Servet Haziiev was unlawfully convicted in the so-called “Second Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir Case.” Along with four other Crimean Tatars—Alim Karimov, Seiran Murtaza, Erfan Osmanov, and Dzhemil Hafarov—he was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment in January 2023 by the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don. Dzhemil Hafarov, one of the co-defendants, died in custody on February 10, 2023, due to the lack of proper medical care.

During the trial, the court failed to provide Haziiev with an interpreter, violating procedural norms, and he was not allowed to deliver his final statement during the appeal.

After suffering a stroke in 2021, Haziiev’s health significantly deteriorated. He experiences severe pain in his right arm, numbness in his fingers, coordination issues, and gastrointestinal problems. Emil Kurbedinov’s lawyer has repeatedly stressed that Haziiev urgently requires medical examinations and treatment, which the prison administration consistently denies.

“Like Dzhemil, who continuously reported feeling unwell and in need of medical assistance—and who ultimately died as a martyr within prison walls—Servet has long been requesting proper medical evaluations and treatment, but this has not been provided,” noted Emil Kurbedinov.

The systemic violation of human rights, including inhumane detention conditions and denial of medical care in Russian penal colonies, has become a widespread practice. These actions are part of Russia’s repressive policies targeting unlawfully imprisoned Ukrainian citizens based on ethnic, political, and religious grounds. We call on international human rights organizations and democratic nations to intensify pressure on the Russian Federation to secure the release of Servet Haziiev and all other illegally detained Ukrainian political prisoners.