Crimean Tatar woman, 24, faces life imprisonment in occupied Crimea

Russian occupation authorities in Crimea are preparing to sentence Khatidzhe Buiukhchan, a 24-year-old Crimean Tatar, to life imprisonment for allegedly "preparing a terrorist attack" and "treason".

Source: statement by MP Tamila Tasheva, former representative of the president of Ukraine in Crimea; Suspilne Krym, the local branch of the Ukrainian public broadcaster

Quote from Tasheva: "Khatidzhe Buiukhchan, a 24-year-old Crimean Tatar woman, disappeared on 6 May. That morning, she boarded a bus from Staryi Krym to Simferopol – after that, nothing more was heard from her. Her whereabouts remained unknown for over two months.

On 14 July, the FSB released a staged video of the young woman reading out a pre-rehearsed text, her face blurred. Russian media reported that she had been detained for allegedly ‘preparing a terrorist attack’ against a Russian Defence Ministry officer and ‘treason’. She was arrested by the Russian occupation ‘court’.

There is no doubt that during those two months, the FSB beat a confession out of her and wrote texts that the young woman memorised and read out on camera. These are the criminal methods used by the Russian security forces; these are crimes against freedom.

Khatidzhe faces life imprisonment. This is the first time that such a sentence could be imposed on a young Crimean woman."

Details: Tasheva said that the number of disappearances in occupied Crimea has been increasing over the past year. Among those who have disappeared are Niyara Ersmambetova, Yevheniia Samoilova, Tamara Chernukha, Serhii Kozlov and Serhii Hryshchenko.

"The Russian Federation is tightening control over the information space in the occupied territories, equating whatever they can with crimes," she wrote.

Suspilne Krym has reported that on 14 July, the FSB announced that it had "prevented a terrorist attack" that was "being prepared by a woman on behalf of the Security Service of Ukraine".

It later became known that the woman in question was Buiukhchan. The Crimean Tatar Resource Centre said that this became known on 7 May. Buiukhchan was held in a pre-trial detention centre for about 70 days.

Zarema Bariieva, manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre, said: "All these months, we knew she was being held in a pre-trial detention centre and that she was being pressured. But her parents did not give permission for publication because we understand that there were threats... During those two months, they [FSB employees – ed.] extracted this information, wrote texts that she read, recited, and learned by heart. I am inclined to think that she did this under duress, not of her own free will, not because she was actually cooperating with anyone there."

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!