The vast majority of Crimean journalists imprisoned for political reasons are serving their unjust sentences in Russia.

The vast majority of Crimean journalists imprisoned for political reasons are serving illegal sentences in Russia; the only media worker who has not been transferred from Crimea is freelancer Vladislav Yesipenko from the publication “Krym.Realii.”

This was reported by journalist Lutfiye Zudieva from the publication “Grati” during the online forum “Trials Against Freedom of Speech in Crimea: The Cost of Journalistic Work,” organized by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.

The journalist has been detained by the occupying authorities of the peninsula since March 2021. He is currently in a penal colony in the city of Kerch, where he is serving his sentence.

As of November 2024, a total of 18 journalists have been detained in occupied Crimea, most of whom have already been sentenced by illegal courts and are serving their sentences, Zudieva clarified.

It is worth noting that Lutfiye Zudieva is a Crimean Tatar activist with the public organization “Crimean Solidarity,” a journalist for the publication “Grati,” and a human rights defender. She covers court proceedings and human rights violations in occupied Crimea. Before 2014, she led a children's center and was compelled to engage in human rights advocacy following the occupation of Crimea.

She has repeatedly faced pressure from the occupying Russian authorities in Crimea. Zudieva was first detained by Russian security forces in 2019 for allegedly spreading “extremist symbols” on social media. For this, she was fined two thousand Russian rubles.

In February 2024, the Crimean “Center for Countering Extremism” (CCE) issued two administrative protocols against the human rights defender for several Facebook posts. In particular, her messages discussed the revocation of licenses from Crimean lawyers, mentioning similar practices in Belarus, as well as the sentencing of journalist Yesipenko. In her publications, the journalist referred to the Belarusian and Ukrainian editorial offices of “Radio Liberty” without labeling them as “foreign agents,” as required by the occupiers under Russian law.

On March 20, the Kyiv “district court” of occupied Simferopol fined her 2,500 rubles for “abuse of freedom of mass information.”

On April 9, “Supreme Court” judge of Crimea Ekaterina Timoshenko upheld this decision.

In May 2024, representatives of the occupying authorities issued her a “warning” regarding the inadmissibility of holding rallies. The document was written in a general form and lacked any identifying information.

As Zudieva explained, the issuance of such a “document” is a practice of censorship, a ban on freedom of expression, and an attack on independent legal practices and human rights organizations in occupied Crimea.

Previously, ZMINA reported that in occupied Crimea, the Crimean Tatar newspaper “Qirim” had been “tried” three times in a year.