The Association talked with the wife of activist Emir-Usein Kuku, Meriem, and learned the latest news from IK No. 16 in the city of Salavat in Bashkortostan, where Emir-Usein is being illegally detained.‍

‍“Since May 4, Usein has been in SHIZO where he was placed for 15 days. Tatars convicted under the article “Terrorism” are periodically placed in the punishment cell for no reason. When I visited my husband for the last time in 2021, he told me that even an unfastened collar button could be the reason for transferring to SHIZO,” says Meriem.

The wife admits that over the years she has learned to write to Usein about news from Ukraine and Crimea “allegorically”, because you can’t call a spade a spade in correspondence – the letters arrive already in open envelopes.

Kuku’s health is the most painful topic. In 2015, during his first detention, the FSB beat off his kidneys and damaged his lumbar spine. These injuries which are not treated in the colony have become chronic and constantly make themselves felt.

“After the beating, doctors warned that a spinal injury would lead to problems with the whole skeletal system. And so it happened: in 2019, Usein developed a lump in the kneecap and his leg swelled. Then, in the Rostov-on-Don SIZO, he managed to get an ultrasound, after which he was diagnosed with a Baker cyst. This problem still exists and it is difficult for him to perform namaz because of his sore knee,” Meriem told the Association.

The woman sends parcels once in every 3 months. She really wants to fit in the allowed 20 kg as many vitamins and foods which Kuku cannot get in the colony as possible – dried fruits, nuts, figs.

As a reminder, Emir-Usein Kuku is the most famous of the defendants in the Yalta “Hizb ut-Tahrir case”, a Crimean Tatar human rights activist and a member of the Human Rights Contact Group which tried to prevent the abduction of activists on the peninsula.The political persecution of Emir began in 2015: the man was detained and severely beaten by the FSB, his house was searched, but later he was released. A year later, Kuku was arrested again, and in 2019, he was sentenced to 12 years in a strict regime colony.