Life before the detention
Enver Seitiosmanov was born on November 10, 1986, in Uzbekistan. After returning to Crimea, his family settled in the village of Sadove. There, he graduated from school and entered the Bilohirsk Vocational School of Agriculture and Food, where he qualified as a tractor-machinist.
Throughout his life, Enver worked in various fields: as a driver, mechanic, and builder, and also managed a household, growing vegetables and tending to livestock. He also took part in organizing religious events, including mosque repairs, and supported the families of Crimean Tatar political prisoners.
Persecution
After a wave of arrests in Sevastopol in 2015, Enver Seitiosmanov and his brother began actively helping the families of the detainees. This drew the attention of the Russian security forces—the brothers were summoned for interrogations, pressured, and demanded to provide testimony against other defendants in the case. They were threatened with criminal liability should they refuse to cooperate.
In 2018, the Russian occupation administration conducted searches in the brothers’ home and their mother’s house. Following this, they were detained and charged in the so-called Crimean Muslims case, specifically for alleged participation in the “Hizb ut-Tahrir” organization, which Russia considers terroristic.
Behind the bars
On December 5, 2019, a Russian so-called court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced him to 17 years in a maximum-security penal colony. In his final statement at the hearing, Enver emphasized the political nature of the persecution. According to him, Crimean Tatars and Muslims are not terrorists, and he himself is “a designated criminal without a crime.” He also stressed that he is a citizen of Ukraine who was illegally deported from the temporarily occupied Crimea and is being tried on the territory of Russia.
In 2020, Enver was moved to a correctional colony in the Russian city of Salavat, where he is still being held. In captivity, he continues to face pressure from the Russian occupation administration.