Today we share the story of Crimean Tatar activist Raim Aivazov, illegally sentenced by Russia to 17 years in prison.
Life before the detention
Raim Khalilovych Aivazov was born on January 30, 1994, in Simferopol.
In 2000, he went to school No. 42 in Simferopol, where he graduated from the ninth grade. Later, he entered the Simferopol Professional Construction Lyceum, where he received a degree in carpentry.
What did the occupiers come up with?
On the night of April 16-17, 2019, Crimean Tatar activist Raim Aivazov was detained by Russian security forces at the Russian checkpoint “Armyansk” while trying to cross the administrative border with occupied Crimea. The detention followed the standard scenario for such cases – Russian border guards took him to the side for “additional document checks,” after which communication with Raim disappeared.
For more than 12 hours, his family had no news from him, until in the afternoon of the next day, Raim called his sister, informing her that he was in custody at the FSB office in Simferopol.
After his detention, Raim was subjected to physical and psychological pressure, including a mock execution, to force him to plead guilty to trumped-up charges After the occupation “court” in Simferopol imposed a pre-trial restraint in the form of detention, Aivazov, along with other Crimean Tatars, was transferred to the Rostov region of Russia, where he was held in five different detention centers, periodically returned to Crimea for “investigative actions.”
Why was Aivazov Raim actually detained?
Raim Aivazov actively supported the families of Crimean political prisoners, organized financial assistance to imprisoned activists, and regularly attended court hearings in politically motivated cases, defending the rights of other Crimean Tatars.
His case was another in an endless list of systematic persecution of the Indigenous peoples of Ukraine in Crimea by the Russian occupation forces for their ethnicity.
Where is Aivazov Raim now?
On March 10, 2022, a Russian court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Raim Aivazov to 17 years in a maximum security colony, five of which he will spend in prison.
“Unfortunately, nothing has changed in Crimea in nine years in the new reality corresponding to 1944. My ancestors were traitors according to the Soviet authorities, and we are terrorists and extremists according to the Russian Federation. I urge you to do your best and make the right decision regarding me and my friends. So that in the future you will not be ashamed, like your predecessors, to look people in the eye,” Raim Aivazov said in his last speech at the trial.
After the verdict was confirmed on March 28, 2023, by the Court of Appeal of Vlasykha, he was illegally transferred to the prison in Dymytrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region of Russia.
He remained in prison until August 2024, when he was again transferred to the Penal colony No. 21 in the Arkhangelsk region, more than 1500 km from Crimea, where he remains today.