Today, Crimean Tatar activist, human rights defender and member of the Crimean Contact Group on Human Rights Emir-Usein Kuku celebrates his birthday in illegal Russian detention.

Emir-Usein Kuku was born and raised in deportation, in the family of Kemal Kuku, a veteran of the National Movement of Crimean Tatars. His family’s house was actually the headquarters of the movement. It was only in 1993 that the activist’s family returned to their homeland, the Ukrainian Crimea. Together with his father, Emir-Usein built a house in Koreiz. He received his higher education in Kherson and Kharkiv, and later married Meryem, a teacher of Crimean Tatar and English. They had two children: a son, Bekir, and a daughter, Safiye.

Mr. Kuku worked in the Yalta City Administration and was actively involved in the public life of the Crimean Tatars in the Yalta region: he organized commemorative events and national holidays, and was involved in the restoration and protection of cultural monuments. When Russia invaded the peninsula, Emir-Usein traveled to Simferopol and joined a rally near the Supreme Council of Crimea on February 26, 2014. After the occupiers’ repression of the Crimean Tatars began, the activist joined the Crimean Contact Group for Human Rights.

The occupation forces began to persecute Mr. Kuku in April 2015, when he was first abducted, illegally searched in his home and taken for interrogation. In February of the following year, the activist’s house was searched again, and he was detained on charges of allegedly “participating in the activities of a terrorist organization.” Since then, Emir-Usein has been illegally detained.

In December 2016, the occupiers forcibly sent Emir-Usein to undergo a so-called “psychiatric examination”, which lasted almost a month. In the pre-trial detention center, he was often denied visits with his family, even “court hearings” were held in closed session. In early 2018, the occupiers deported the political prisoner to Rostov. On June 26 of the same year, Mr. Kuku went on a hunger strike demanding the release of Crimean political prisoners and an end to repressions against the Crimean Tatars. After 24 days, he stopped the hunger strike, and his health condition suffered greatly.

Emir-Usein Kuku was illegally sentenced by the occupiers to 12 years in a strict regime colony. Only the de-occupation of Crimea will guarantee freedom and respect for human rights, including those of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.

Ukraine remembers every crime of occupation!