Today, December 5, Crimean Tatar activist and political prisoner Asan Akhtemov turns 35. He is forced to celebrate his birthday in Russian captivity.

Asan is a journalist, correspondent, and assistant editor for the Avdet newspaper. He organized chess tournaments and campaigns in support of the Crimean Tatar language, engaged with national culture, attended court hearings in occupation courts related to political prisoners, supported their families, and publicly opposed the occupation.

On September 3, 2021, Russian FSB officers detained him, along with his brother Aziz and the First Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Nariman Dzhelyal, in occupied Crimea, under fabricated charges of “sabotage” on a gas pipeline in the village of Perevalne.

The Akhtemov brothers were subjected to torture, including electric shocks, physical, and psychological abuse. In September 2022, the occupation “court” sentenced Asan to 15 years in a maximum-security penal colony and fined him 500,000 rubles.

Today, Asan is being held in a maximum-security penal colony in the Vladimir region of Russia, known as “Vladimir Central.” He should be celebrating his birthday at home with his family, where his wife, son, and daughter are waiting for him. However, the occupiers have deprived him of that opportunity.

In captivity, Asan writes:

“My main goal in life is to live in Crimea and see my people flourish and be happy. I believe that this will come true.”

We have no doubt that very soon Asan, like all other Ukrainian political prisoners, will celebrate his birthday in a free, Ukrainian Crimea.