Before his arrest, Emil Ziyadinov, a sports coach and electrician, took an active part in the public life of the Crimean Tatar people. Together with his compatriots, he supported political prisoners and their families, was on searches and trials, and held individual pickets and flash mobs. In July 2020, Emil and six other activists were arrested by the Russian occupiers on trumped-up charges of terrorism. They have been illegally detained for almost a year. Emil's wife and four sons are waiting for him at home.

Read the full text of his letter below.

 

“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Prayers and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad,

his family and all of his companions.

I would like to tell a little about my life before people in masks burst into my house at 4 o’clock in the morning.

After the deportation of Crimean Tatars people to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and other former USSR republics, my people have always tried to return to their Motherland. So, my family - father, mother, me and two brothers - moved to Crimea in 1993. I was eight years old, and I would say that all my conscious life had been spent in Crimea.

From Uzbekistan, we immediately moved straightaway to the village Oktyabrske in Crimea and to this day, my parents and family live there.

My life was ordinary and no different from the life of the other children. Nevertheless, somewhere in the middle of the 10th grade (1999-2000), I began to take an interest in religion and started to perform Salah, after which my life began to change.

Later, my brothers also began to perform Salah and after that, parents did the same. Many relatives, friends, loved ones, classmates and classmates began to practice Islam. Alhamdulillah, my people are slowly returning to their origins and culture.

I studied and graduated from V.I. Vernadsky Taurida National University in Simferopol with a degree in "physical education".

Until 2014, we held holidays for children and adults on Ramadan and Eid al-Adha, rallies in support of Muslims and the protection of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) and did everything for Crimean Tatars to return to Islam. At the same time, other nationalities had an opportunity to learn more about our religion that has nothing to do with extremism, terrorism and fanaticism.

After 2014, we continued our peaceful struggle, but it had already had a different character, since after the annexation there was a strong pressure and an attempt to break the will of the Crimean Tatars. Firstly, it was abductions and tortures. After 2015, they began to arrest us, attributing extremism and terrorism. And all because that professing Islam people were social active citizens and not indifferent class of our nation.

Now we went more to searches, places of detention, visited courts, supported and helped the families of political prisoners, made broadcasts, went out with single pickets and conducted flash mobs, for which many of us received fines.

The first shot across the bow that they were going to send me to prison was on the search of Rustem Sheikhaliev, a defendant in the "second Simferopol" group, where 25 people have been on trial. There were about 30 searches that day: each of them was broadcasted by publicity. I came to Rustem’s search. They detained me there, allegedly, for resisting law enforcement agencies. During the arrest, they beat and when they put handcuffs on me, they get me in the car and so spread my legs that I could even sit on a leg-split. Then a masked FSB officer came up to me, probably, he was one of the bosses, and said, jabbing at me: "He should be jailed." They released me at night of the same day and fined.

When we went to Moscow to see the brothers from the “first Simferopol” group, after the return from the court session to the apartment that we rented for a day, we noticed that someone had been watching us. Probably, it was FSB officers. The surveillance was conducted openly and impudently. They had not even hiding from us. As it turned out later from during my hearing in court, at that time they really followed me, they recorded my conversations, including by phone.

When they arrested me in 2020, my four little children left at home without their father (the eldest son was 9 years old, the second was 6, the third was 4 years old and the youngest was 2 years old) and that time my wife was pregnant with our daughter, whom we were waiting for so long. But by the Will of the Most High, the fetus died a few days before to be born. I gave my children Islamic names and raised them from their birth in the spirit of Islam. In Russia, the average Muslim turns out to be a terrorist. Personally, I had not known that I was a “terrorist” until 2020, the day I was detained.

I wish people not to be afraid when they see injustice, and not to keep silence. Conversely, they should come out and support each other. Do not let yourself keeping eyes closed. I want my people to continue the peaceful struggle and never bow their heads to the occupiers, live in accordance with the principles of Islam and come out of the oppressed situation. Allah does not leave his believing slaves and is their Helper.

Yours faithfully,

political prisoner Emil Ziyadinov”