The Final Statement
‘I have nothing to confess. I did not invade someone else’s country.’
My name is Timur Izzetovich Ibragimov. I was born on 26 January 1985 in the city of Yangiyul, Uzbek SSR. I am a political prisoner, a citizen of Ukraine, a citizen journalist and an activist with Crimean Solidarity. I am a Muslim and a Crimean Tatar. This is my final statement in court.
For more than 25 years, I lived in the Bakhchysarai District of the Crimean Peninsula, on the land where our ancestors lived. My ancestors–the Muslims of Crimea–were ruthlessly repressed, oppressed and persecuted for 200 years, and were ultimately branded traitors without any justification. This culminated in the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people on 18 May 1944. Who was responsible for oppressing my long-suffering people? Who was the source of their misfortunes? Who, beginning in the second half of the 18th century, treated the Muslims of Crimea so treacherously, slandered them, imprisoned them or exiled them from their homeland simply because of their convictions?
In 1783, the Russian Empire occupied Crimea, fundamentally changing the lives of its indigenous people for the next 200 years. Conditions were created in Crimea that made it impossible to live there and practise Islam freely. The elite of our people–scholars, imams and political figures–were persecuted and exiled to the Caucasus or other remote parts of Russia. As a result, a huge number of Crimean Tatars were forced to migrate to our brotherly country of Turkey in order to preserve their religion and identity. Those who remained were forced to live under the conditions imposed by the Russian Empire until the Communists came to power.
The suffering of our people did not end with the Communists’ rise to power. Oppression and persecution continued. Ultimately, on 18 May 1944, the Crimean Tatars were brutally deported from their homeland to Central Asia, leaving behind their homes and all their possessions. Women, children and the elderly were herded into cattle cars and transported to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Between 30 and 40 per cent of my people died during this forced relocation. Crimean Tatar men were away at war, defending their homeland, but when they returned from the front, they were sent after their families. Why did the Russian Empire and its successor, the Soviet Union, hate my people so much? Why did they resort to such a vile war against them?
After the 1990s, following 50 years of exile, we were able to return to Crimea, which by then was part of Ukraine. For two decades, we had to rebuild our lives from scratch. Just as we had finally established our homes and begun to live peacefully, in 2014 the Russian Federation once again appeared in Crimea like a viral infection. Immediately after the occupation, following a pseudo-referendum, disaster once again came knocking on the doors of Crimean Muslim households.
The peaceful days of Crimea’s residents came to an end. All the signs of Russian presence returned to the peninsula: mass surveillance, disappearances, intimidation of the population, terror and absurdly long prison sentences for dissent and active civic engagement. There can be no talk of freedom of speech or human rights in this state. I have personally experienced this time and again. Today, freedom in this country is nothing more than a deceptive label that its government tries to show the rest of the world. Unfortunately, it is an illusion. Anyone living in this country can experience first-hand the full extent of Russian ‘freedoms’ and ‘rights’. I, along with the other men here, have fallen victim to this conveyor belt of fabricated charges and slander, and today we face unimaginable prison sentences. The question is: what have we done to deserve accusations of terrorism and the violent overthrow of the government?
The key to this mystery lies in 2003. In 2003, following a closed-door trial, the organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami was designated as a terrorist organisation. Since its founding in 1953 and up to the present day, this organisation has not carried out a single terrorist attack. Nevertheless, a court under the patronage of the FSB accused Hizb ut-Tahrir of terrorist activities. Although it is widely known that Hizb ut-Tahrir is not banned in any developed country in the world, let alone included on lists of terrorist organisations, this is unprecedented anywhere in the world, with the exception of certain countries. So why did the Russian Federation ban Hizb ut-Tahrir by falsely accusing it of terrorism? The fact is that the Russian Federation tolerates no dissent on its territory and immediately cracks down on anything of that kind, despite constantly claiming to be a state governed by the rule of law that guarantees freedom of speech and thought. Something here smells of hypocrisy. Personally, I believe that the Russian Federation is simply incapable of engaging in debate with organisations that hold dissenting views. Instead of defending its position through constructive dialogue, it has chosen to use force. In my view, resorting to force is also a sign of ideological weakness.
Thus, since 2003, hundreds of criminal cases have been initiated in Russia under Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code. Law-abiding people have begun receiving enormous prison sentences after being routinely accused of terrorism, even though their only ‘crime’ was holding views different from those approved by the state and maintaining an active civic stance. The overwhelming majority of cases under Article 205.5 in Russia have been fabricated by the security services. The FSB is essentially conducting a witch hunt. It looks for and finds crimes where none exist and none could possibly exist. These are nothing but fabrications and slander on its part. This is driven by the FSB’s need to demonstrate its own importance, as well as its negative attitude towards Islam. And so it fights this so-called evil, receiving bonuses and awards and promoting its officers up the career ladder. But the FSB itself is the embodiment of evil in the flesh; it is terror itself. People have been so intimidated that they are afraid to express their opinions and are forced to live pretending that everything is fine and that they are satisfied with everything. What kind of freedom is that? Whenever brave people emerge who dare to voice their dissatisfaction, the FSB is immediately there.
Courts and judges shield the security services and facilitate their efforts to eradicate dissent. Such trials resemble a circus or a theatrical performance, where the equality of the parties and other procedural guarantees are merely simulated. I have never witnessed such hypocrisy in my life. The court in which we are sitting today is no exception. Throughout the year of these proceedings, we have personally experienced and witnessed the lawlessness that this court has openly demonstrated towards us. I, Timur Izzetovich Ibragimov, a father of four minor children, a person with a Category III visual disability, a law-abiding Muslim and a family man, am standing here today in this glass enclosure to deliver my final statement. This means that this trial is approaching its end, and soon we will see what the judges have in store for us.
For three years, I have been held in detention in inhumane conditions, far away from my family and loved ones. Today, the prosecution has requested a sentence of 20 years in a strict-regime penal colony, plus two years of restricted freedom. For what? I am not a drug addict, a murderer or a rapist. Why such a long sentence? It is beyond comprehension! I am a Muslim, and, like Muslims all over the world, I dream of living according to Islamic principles. These are my wishes and beliefs, and I do not impose them on anyone. I perform my prayers, observe the fast, and have performed Hajj; my family also lives according to Islam. My wife and I lived together harmoniously for ten years. Lies and hypocrisy, alcoholism and drug addiction, fraud and theft, adultery and other vices are alien to us. All of this is alien to us–these are our beliefs, this is our life, this is who we are. Yet, despite everything, the Russian Federation sees me and the other men here as a threat. Otherwise, why would they need all this? Why arrest Muslims who have brought nothing but good to this society? This is precisely the physical eradication I spoke about. We are persecuted because we are Muslims with an active civic stance, people who do not abandon those in need. Before 2014, we never imagined that we could one day be accused of anything like this. Terrorism came to Crimea with Russia, because Russia itself is the embodiment of terrorism. And so, what has happened? We, the Crimean Tatars, are once again bearing the burden of repression, just as our ancestors did. Nothing has changed. We used to be accused of treason; now we are accused of terrorism.
I am not a terrorist or an invader. I did not invade someone else’s country or hold pseudo-referendums. I did not abduct people, burst into homes armed or terrorise children. All of this is abhorrent to me. I became a victim of repression simply because I practised my religion. Today, a conversation in a mosque can carry a prison sentence of up to 21 years. I am not a nationalist; I have absolutely no bias against other nations. I believe that a person’s worth is determined by their intellect, not their skin colour or origin. I harbour no hatred towards other religions; Islam categorically forbids it. Your sentences do not frighten me in the slightest. The true judgement will come from Almighty Allah. I do not consider myself guilty and I do not admit guilt. There is nothing for me to confess. I have no intention of indulging the fantasies of investigators and prosecutors.
I demand that you put an end to this travesty of justice and stop persecuting us and our people. Leave us alone, once and for all. What do you want from us? You have been shedding our blood for more than two centuries. You must release us from this courtroom immediately and compensate us for every minute we have spent in captivity. Although I doubt that such suffering can ever truly be compensated for. Families left without their fathers, the tears of mothers and wives–none of this can be compensated for. Leave Islam alone and stop interfering in our lives!
All defendants in this case are charged with membership in or organising the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has been banned in Russia since 2003. In Ukraine and most European countries, the organisation operates without restrictions under national legislation.
16 September 2020,
Southern District Military Court, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
Source: Crimean Solidarity.
More information: Memorial.
Photo: Crimean Solidarity.