Deputy Head of Mejlis Nariman Dzhelyal released from Russian captivity

Ten Ukrainian civilian prisoners have been released from Russian captivity, including prominent Crimean Tatar leader and activist Nariman Dzhelyal. Dzhelyal, who is deputy head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and a citizen journalist, was arrested by Russian authorities in Crimea last year on sabotage charges.

Also freed were Olena Pekh and Valeriy Matiushenko, who had been held since 2017–2018, as well as Bogdan Geleta and Ivan Levytskyi, two Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests captured in Berdyansk for resisting the Russian occupation. Additionally, five civilians detained in Belarus – Mykola Shvets, Nataliya Zakharenko, Pavlo Kupriienko, Lyudmyla Honcharenko, and Kateryna Bryukhanova – were released. 

As reported earlier, Nariman Dzhelyal was arrested by Russian occupiers after returning to Crimea from the “Crimean Platform” summit, accused of sabotage. Russian security forces accused him of blowing up a gas pipeline in the village of Perevalne (not far from Simferopol, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea).

Dzhelyal was later sentenced by the Kremlin-controlled Supreme Court of Crimea to 17 years in a maximum-security colony, with a fine of 700,000 rubles and an additional 1.5 years of restricted freedom. 

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn, Terra Friedman King