Today, on October 25, the 41st birthday of Crimean Tatar political prisoner and activist Amet Suleimanov will not be spent among his family and friends but in the cold cell of the Vladimir Central Prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amet Suleimanov was born on October 25, 1984, in Urgut, Samarkand Region, Uzbekistan. He and his family were able to return to Crimea only in 1991. He grew up in the village of Kholmivka in the Bakhchysarai district, went to school there, and graduated in 1999. After school, Amet entered a madrasa in Simferopol \u2014 from where he was invited to continue his studies in Turkey. However, due to heart problems that had troubled him since his youth, his parents had to decline the opportunity. In 2001, he began studying at the Bakhchysarai Construction Lyceum, where he trained as a carpenter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until 2004, Amet worked in his trade and later became a manager at a mobile phone store, where he sold gadgets, stationery, and handled technical documentation. In 2005, he married Lilia, and together they raised four children. The youngest son was born just three weeks after the occupying security forces conducted an illegal search in their home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As early as 2007, doctors diagnosed Amet with heart failure and the need for a valve replacement. He received treatment in Kyiv and Simferopol and was granted Group III disability status. But the occupation destroyed his plans for surgery and consistent medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amet\u2019s public activism began with his participation in the Crimean Solidarity movement \u2014 he became one of the activists documenting repression and illegal \u201ctrials\u201d against Crimean Tatars. He recorded searches, detentions, and court hearings involving his fellow citizens, striving to reveal the truth to the world. In October 2017, he was detained for filming the occupiers near the home of Seyran Saliev and fined 15,000 rubles. On October 22, 2019, he was detained again \u2014 this time on the so-called \u201cKerch Bridge\u201d while returning from a \u201ccourt hearing\u201d in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On March 11, 2020, the FSB carried out yet another search in his home, after which Amet was arrested and accused of allegedly \u201cparticipating in a terrorist organization.\u201d He was then placed under house arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite his disability, in 2021 the occupiers sentenced Amet to 12 years in a maximum-security colony, and in April 2023 he was transferred to the Vladimir Central Prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though he suffers from severe arterial and mitral heart valve insufficiency \u2014 a condition that, even under Russian law, should exclude imprisonment \u2014 Amet remains behind bars. Back in 2019, doctors were preparing him for surgery, but instead of treatment, he has spent years enduring pain, shortness of breath, and repeated hypertensive crises. In 2024, his condition worsened sharply, but the appeals of his family and lawyers have gone unanswered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
October 25 is more than just a date. It is a reminder that people remain imprisoned in Russian jails for telling the truth. Amet Suleimanov and dozens of other political prisoners are suffering right now because of injustice and the deliberate cruelty of the occupiers \u2014 their voices deserve to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Support those who continue to endure captivity \u2014 write letters, share their stories, speak their names aloud. Each of them is not only an individual fate but a part of the collective struggle of an entire people \u2014 for dignity, freedom, and the right to remain human.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":77552,"template":"","publication-type":[43],"class_list":["post-77554","press-center","type-press-center","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","publication-type-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n