On 11 August 2022, Russian security forces searched the home in the village of Vilne, Dzhankoi district, where Vilen Temerianov lived with his wife and three children. That same day, he was arrested and charged with terrorism. For the past three years, the activist has been held in a pre-trial detention centre, with his trial still ongoing. The prosecutor of the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has requested a sentence of 13 years’ imprisonment for Vilen.

The main evidence cited for his alleged involvement in an organisation banned in Russia is a 2015 audio recording of religious discussions held at a mosque in the village of Novostepne (Crimean Tatar: Yañı Canköy) in Dzhankoi district, along with testimonies from so-called witnesses whose identities are concealed and whose voices are altered using technical means, making it impossible to verify the credibility of their statements.

Vilen Temerianov is a Crimean Tatar activist and journalist with the civic initiative Crimean Solidarity and the outlet Grani. In his reporting, he covered politically motivated persecution of Crimean Tatars in Russian-occupied Crimea and documented unfair trials against his compatriots. At home, he has a wife and three children; his youngest son, Khalid, suffers from a serious heart condition — tricuspid atresia. Temerianov has legal guardianship of his son due to the child’s disability. During his imprisonment, Vilen’s mother and sister passed away, yet Russian officials did not allow him to attend either funeral.

We call on the international community to remember the prisoners of the Russian system and to systematically work towards securing their release.