Former political prisoner, first deputy head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Nariman Dzhelyal at the meeting of the UN Security Council in the format of “Arria” spoke about the challenges faced by Crimean political prisoners in Russian prisons, including his personal experience. He also named the names of those in critical health and who had been tortured.

He reported this at the meeting of the UN Security Council on January 13 in New York, writes Society.Crimea.

“Since 2014, I have lived and worked in the occupied Crimea, as a result of illegal politically motivated persecution by the Russian authorities, many activists, journalists, including myself, have been arrested. Criminal cases were fabricated. Torture and abuse were used against us,” Jalal said.

According to him, the testimony of anonymous people was used in Russian or occupation courts as evidence against Ukrainian political prisoners. As a result, they are deprived of access to justice, they cannot protest against claims and accusations.

In addition, Dzhelal clarified that it is especially difficult to receive medical care in Russian prisons. Almost all applications for it remain unanswered.

“In one of the prisons we were forbidden to sit on beds, we had to sit on benches or walk around the cell. Because of this, I had swelling of the legs. In another prison, I was forced to lie on the floor because I had a high fever, fever, but the doctor never visited me, and without the permission of the doctor, I cannot lie down on the bed,” he said.

The former Kremlin prisoner noted that Rustom Gugrik, Irina Danilovich, Galina Dovholova, Amet Suleymanov, Tofik Abdulgaziev, Timur Abdullayev “and many other political prisoners” are currently in critical condition.

Dzhelyal said that he was personally told about the torture by brothers Asan and Aziz Akhtemoy, Shefket Useinov and Eldar Odamanov, who were detained by the occupiers together with him in September 2021.

“They were subjected to severe beatings, torture with the use of electric shock, threats of murder, including the murder of their children. In prison, I met with a Ukrainian from the Kherson region, he told me that the occupiers tortured his wife in order to extract from him a confession of committing an attack,” Dzhelyal noted.

The first deputy head of the Mejlis added that the Russians also removed political prisoners after repeated torture and beatings for the alleged execution. They were shot near the head, “for criminals it was fun.”

The former political prisoner spent three years in a Russian prison because he “publicly spoke out against the Russian occupation of Crimea.”

“A week before my release, FSB officers came to my prison, one of them asked me, “If you knew you were going to be arrested, if you knew about it, why didn't you go?” I remember responding very emotionally. I said this: “You invaded my homeland, why do I have to go?”, — said Jalal.