Ruslan Suleimanov

Activist of the “Crimean Solidarity” movement. On March 27, 2019, he was detained after a search and the next day taken into custody on charges of organising activities of a terrorist organisation. Sent to a pre-trial detention centre in the Rostov region, later transferred back to Crimea.

In March 2020, it became known that Suleimanov was also accused of preparing to overthrow the constitutional order. In August, the charge of organising the activities of a terrorist organisation was reclassified into participation in such activities.

On November 24, 2022, he was sentenced to 14 years in a strict-regime penal colony.

In December 2023, it was reported that Suleymanov was not receiving items purchased through the FSIN (Federal Penitentiary Service) prison store.

'Suleimanov repeatedly sought medical help due to his congenital heart defect and tachycardia. The doctor came to him only once, offering motherwort and glycine. The political prisoner refused both medications. When he asked for a non-alcohol-based drug, the doctors said they had none (https://crimean-solidarity.org/news/2023/11/10/grazhdanskij-zhurnalist-ruslan-sulejmanov-pozhalovalsya-na-bezdejstvie-vrachej-2796).

In June 2020, Ruslan Suleimanov (https://hromadske.ua/posts/v-aneksovanomu-krimu-gromadyanskogo-zhurnalista-na-misyac-vidpravili-do-psihiatrichnoyi-likarni) was placed in the inpatient ward of the Crimean Republican Psychiatric Hospital, where he underwent a month-long forced forensic psychiatric examination: 'We are deeply concerned by reports that a journalist in Crimea has been subjected to a month-long compulsory forensic psychiatric examination. We call on Russia to immediately cease its human rights abuses in Crimea and withdraw from Ukrainian territory,' — stated the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. (https://twitter.com/USEmbassyKyiv/status/1276094477774589952) In July, Ruslan's lawyer Liliia Gemedzhi said that her client had been diagnosed with a heart defect (https://krymsos.com/news/5f0d6572a5f6a/)

On July 26, 2020, the body of three-year-old Musa Suleimanov — the son of political prisoner Ruslan Suleimanov, a defendant in the second Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir case — was found after a three-day search in the annexed Crimea
(https://hromadske.ua/ru/posts/v-anneksirovannom-krymu-nashli-mertvym-trehletnego-syna-politzaklyuchennogo-musu-sulejmanova-kotorogo-razyskivali-3-dnya).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the issue (https://hromadske.ua/ru/posts/zelenskij-obsudil-s-putinym-osvobozhdeniya-politzaklyuchennogo-sulejmanova-ego-trehletnego-syna-nashli-mertvym-v-krymu) of releasing the political prisoner Suleimanov, who was being held in a detention centre in the annexed Crimea. Ruslan's lawyer had sent an appeal to the FSB investigators asking them to release Ruslan to attend his son’s funeral. The request was denied. The farewell ceremony took place without him.

You can read more about politically persecuted people in the Telegram channel OVD-Info LIVE and our database of politically motivated criminal prosecutions.