^{Photo: Facebook/ Adile Akhtemova}

After a month of uncertainty about the fate of 28-year-old political prisoner Aziz Akhtemov, his wife, Adile, received a letter from her husband. He is still being transferred by russians and the destination is unknown.

“Finally, we received the first news from Aziz after a month of waiting and worrying...” Adile Akhtemova wrote on her Facebook page.

According to her, in his letters to his relatives, Aziz Akhtemov writes about his arrival at the detention center SIZO-1 in Krasnoyarsk, which is almost 5000 km from his native Simferopol. The man complains that there are problems with food in the Siberian prison. The only food left is tea, Aziz writes. “He hopes that his family will be able to send him some money from Crimea, although it will not solve the problems with food,” says his wife.

^{Adile Akhtemova, photo: Crimean solidarity}

In his letter, Akhtemov says that on September 18, the Russians brought him to Krasnoyarsk, where he will stay for two weeks. However, by the time his letter was received, this period had already passed.

Immediately after Aziz was transferred from Yeniseisk on September 4, Adile Akhtemova thought of writing to her husband in the Krasnoyarsk detention center. However, the very next day she received a dry answer from there: “the addressee has left”. The family does not know whether this is a deliberate plan on the part of the occupiers to conceal the true whereabouts of the Crimean. The wife herself calls this coincidence “very strange”.

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The relatives of the prisoner do not know where Aziz Akhtemov is now and where even further than Siberia the Russian occupiers decided to exile him.

On September 4, 2021, the FSB abducted Aziz Akhtemov and his brother Asan from their homes. Later, the occupiers detained Crimean Tatar politician Nariman Dzhelal. All three were accused of sabotage, fabricating a case of damage to a gas pipeline in the village of Angara (Perevalne) in the summer of 2021.

^{From left: Nariman Celâl, Aziz Akhtemov and Asan Akhtemov; photo: Crimean Solidarity}

Crimean Tatar activists were severely tortured, demanding that they take the blame. A year later, the self-proclaimed Supreme Court of Crimea sentenced the Akhtemov brothers and Nariman Dzhelal to 13 to 17 years in maximum security. Nariman Dzhelial was released in an exchange in June this year.

However, both brothers still remain in captivity. Aziz's elder brother, Asan Akhtemov, is being held in the Vladimir Central.

Кримськотатарських активістів жорстоко катували, вимагаючи взяти на себе провину. А за рік самопроголошений верховний суд Криму засудив братів Ахтемових та Нарімана Джеляла на строки від 13 до 17 років суворого режиму. Наріман Джелял був звільнений в результаті обміну в червні цього року.

Проте обидва брати все ще залишаються в неволі. Старший брат Азіза, Асан Ахтемов знаходиться у “Владімірському централі”.

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