There are different faces among the activists: chefs, artists, students, journalists, entrepreneurs, musicians. There are two more faces among the Crimean activists: blacksmith Oleg Prikhodko and construction worker Azamat Eyupov. Mr. Oleh is 65 years old, and Mr. Azamat is 60. They have only two things in common: loyalty to their country and illegal imprisonment.
Oleh Prykhodko, an activist, participant of the Revolution of Dignity, a welder by training, lived in Saki and worked as a blacksmith, making gates, grates, swings, gazebos, and various decorative items for his home. And in 2014, he came under the sights of the occupation forces.
Born in deportation in Uzbekistan, Azamat Eyupov, after returning to Crimea, worked as a construction worker, raised 4 daughters with his wife, supported fellow citizens and was registered with a doctor for atherosclerotic heart disease. Who knows why, perhaps for participating in a protest rally of Crimean Tatars on Red Square in July 2019, he also came under the sights of the occupation forces.
In the fall of 2019, the occupiers broke into Oleh Prykhodko’s house and searched it, accusing him of allegedly “preparing a terrorist attack” and “manufacturing and storing explosives.” He was accused of planning an explosion in the building of the Russian Consulate General in Lviv, for which he was criminally sentenced to 5 years in a maximum security colony in March 2021. In January of this year, a Russian court added another month to his sentence for alleged “contempt of court.”
On February 17, 2021, during massive searches of the homes of the Crimean Tatars in Simferopol, Sevastopol, Bakhchisarai and Belogorsk, the occupiers planted several books on Azamat Eyupov and arrested him for allegedly “organizing the activities of a terrorist organization” and “attempting to seize power”. For the list of audio recordings without his voice and the false and inaccurate stories of “secret witnesses”, the political prisoner was criminally sentenced to 17 years in a strict regime colony.
Oleh Prykhodko’s relatives said that the political prisoner was tortured with electricity, doused with water, and held with his arms bent and handcuffed. After his arrest, Azamat Eyupov was forcibly sent for a “psychiatric examination”, and behind bars, he was deliberately denied medical care – the man has already suffered 4 ischemic strokes.
He and 179 other political prisoners need our support, our stories and emotions, which are so lacking in the prisons. As part of the “Letters to a Free Crimea” campaign, you can write letters to Azamat Eyupov and Oleg Prikhodko, which we will pass on to them.
Instructions for writing: https://cutt.ly/e5IoS7o