The systematic attack on human rights in Russian-occupied Crimea, suppression of freedom of speech and pressure on independent media have given rise to civic journalism on the peninsula. Remzi Bekirov was one of the sources of objective and operative information about the repressions in the temporarily occupied Crimea. He was repeatedly persecuted for his active civic position. In March 2019, he and other activists were illegally arrested on trumped-up charges of terrorism and attempt to seize power by force.

I am Remzi Bekirov, a citizen journalist of the Crimean Solidarity initiative, a journalist of the Internet publication Grani.ru. I have a wonderful wife and three wonderful children, whom I love and miss. I have spent my whole childhood and youth in Crimea.  Here I went to school, graduated from Taurida National University with a qualification as a teacher of history, worked as a tour guide. In Crimea I built a house, started a family and lived peacefully contributing to the development of my folk.

I like traveling. Having seen almost all sights of the peninsular, I scaled peaks of mountings, descended into dark caves, explored secrets of ancient fortresses of our multinational land. Over all these years I became imbued with beauty of my Motherland, fell in love with culture and tradition of my Crimean Tatar nation and began to comply with fundamental principles of my culture – Islam teachings.

So, being fairly communicative and active, me and my friends, who are worried about our people, the development of Crimea, and position of Muslims, tried to participate in the public life of our folk. It could be reconstruction work of a mosque, assistance to those who are in need, clarification of the religious provisions, or organization Islamic holidays for children, and this is hardly a complete list of what we were doing before our arrest.

When Russia invaded Crimea, my active social life haven`t disappeared, conversely, it intensified. Having realised the danger that threatens my people, to all who thinks differently from the official Kremlin, I took my phone and started together with likeminders began to highlight the repressions that have befallen the peninsula.  Journalism is not my profession, but rather a way to protect my people. I began to work in this sphere in order to protect people, at least somehow, and through this activity, I was looking for ways of development and growth. I believe that a word is also a tool in the fight for liberation, so I decided to use it too. I was with my phone on searches, in courts, and meetings with relatives of prisoners – wherever it was necessary to show the world the injustice that is happening on our peninsula.

The Vedzhie Kashka case, the Akhtem Chiygoz case, the Ismail Ramazanov case, the case of Radio Liberty journalist Mykola Semena, the so-called “February 26 case”, the case of the  chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Ilmi Umerov, numerous cases of “Hizb ut-Tahrir”, arrests in the case “Tablighi Jamaat”, the arrest of Klimenko, the head of the Ukrainian Church in Crimea, numerous administrative cases – this is not a complete list of high-profile cases that I managed to cover.

For my active position, I received administrative arrests twice. The first one when I was covering the search at Marlen Mustafayev's home, and the second for a post on the social network "Vkontakte" seven years ago. Repeatedly I have received threats of criminal responsibility. They came to life on March 27, 2019.

On that day, a search was conducted in my house, as well as in the house of 25 other activists of the "Crimean Solidarity". They burst in at night. The perpetrators scared my family and children. Having not found me at home, armed FSB officers broke into the houses of my neighbours. Me and my friends Osman and Veli were detained at 11 o’clock in the evening at the McDonald's cafe in the city of Aksai, Rostov region, where we had dinner after a long journey. We were beaten, insulted and humiliated for a long time, and then taken to Crimea for trial. After two years of investigation, we were deported to Russian prisons in Rostov. Once our people were expelled from their native land, today modern Russia is evicting us to its prisons for long periods on a step-by-step basis. As once my ancestors longed for their native land, so today we yearn for the Crimea, for our relatives and friends.

Today we have courts on the merits. All criminal cases are built on conversations about courage, Kurds, the value of time and a political vacuum. FSB officers recorded these conversations in one of the houses of Simferopol. All actions of the witness are hidden. Books seized during searches are all-Islamic literature, which spells out legal provisions of our religion. It runs to the absurd. It came to the point of absurdity that my friend's notebook, in which he describes how to deal with anger, was attached to a criminal case!

They accuse us not of just some sort of administrative crime anything, but of terrorism and an attempt to seize power. Of course, the FSB did not find any weapons and ammunition. Using anti-terrorism legislation as a tool, the Russian authorities are cracking down on undesirables. We have felt for ourselves how the Russian authorities are persecuting on the basis of national and religious background. Apart from Hizb ut-Tahrir, other religious organizations are also persecuted in Crimea – Tablighi Jamaat, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars was recognized as an extremist organization.

In our G-25 trial, the judges do not represent us an interpreter, depriving us of the right to speak native language, do not give us time to fulfill their religious prescriptions (prayer and fasting), to say nothing of the fact that the whole case is saturated with Islamophobia.

Addressing the public, I would like you to hear the prisoners` voices of faith who are languishing in Russian prisons.  You must be aware of the lawlessness and repressions that are taking place on the peninsula every day in order to take effective measures to end the lawlessness and protect activists from prosecution.

I believe that the Russian authorities will not break us and our people. I believe that the criminals will be punished, and justice will be restored.

I dream of an early meeting with my kith and kin and return to my native land – Crimea. I dream that fair laws and prosperity will return to Crimea.