The Final Statement
‘My people and I have refused to accept this reality, and we will not be broken. We can be killed, but we cannot be broken.’
Wa alaykum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, dear jamaat
(Note: May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you, my respected people.)
I, Seyran Alimovich Saliev, a political prisoner, a citizen of Ukraine and the father of four minor children, falsely accused, wish to deliver my final statement. Although this is the final statement in the court proceedings, my true final word will be spoken before the Almighty, the greatest of judges–Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
While I am here, on this field of trials, I will continue my peaceful struggle–the struggle for truth, the struggle for the right to live on my own land, the land where my people have fought throughout their history, ever since its formation, for their place in the sun. I and our generation are continuing this struggle today, a struggle that will last until the Day of Judgement.
I am grateful to the Almighty for granting me strength and patience on this blessed path, a path on which the struggle between truth and falsehood takes place. But this struggle will not last long, because falsehood is doomed to perish.
‘The truth has come, and falsehood has vanished. Indeed, falsehood is bound to vanish’ (Surah 17, Ayah 81).
For three years now, my seven comrades and I have been held in Catherine’s dungeons because of our active stance, because we refuse to remain silent when we see the authorities’ lawlessness towards our people. Ever since the Russian Federation invaded the territory of the Crimean Peninsula…
(The judge interrupts Saliev.)
…What I mean is that, by crossing all boundaries and violating both internal agreements and international treaties, laws and norms, this state has provoked outrage and grave concern among international organisations over the situation that has developed. The UN has adopted several resolutions and has also declared–or, more precisely, recognised–Crimea as a territory ‘occupied by Russia’.
My people and I have refused to accept this reality, and we will not be broken. We can be killed, but we cannot be broken. Our spirit cannot be broken, because it is sustained by the Lord of the Worlds. Praise be to Allah. Nor are we in the least disheartened by the actions of those who perpetrate lawlessness. We are guided by the words of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: ‘It is better to die in obedience to Allah than to live in disobedience to Him.’
Furthermore, what we are accused of–namely, terrorism–has absolutely nothing to do with us, because we are devout Muslims and we reject terror, unlike the state that is currently imprisoning us for lengthy terms. That is the state which has chosen methods of extermination…
(Saliev is interrupted again.)
…In fact, today they are calling me a terrorist.
(Saliev is interrupted once more.)
As the Islamic scholar Sheikh Ibn Qayyim said in his book Madarij al-Salikin (The Stages of the Seekers): ‘Awareness that the Almighty watches over us and fear of Him are the foundation of people’s proper conduct. Their observance of the law cannot be ensured through regulations and physical force if their hearts lack fear of the Lord and awareness that He watches over their inner and outer conduct.
No matter how much terror a state employs, it cannot provide every person with a guard to maintain order. The state system alone is insufficient to establish order. What is indispensable is education and the purification of people’s souls. The machinery of the state can establish only external control, whereas Islam addresses this problem both internally and externally. Its history bears witness to this.’
These are the words of a great scholar. They speak precisely of the absence of spirituality. In this case, the Russian Federation is turning the state into a dictatorship, as the whole world can see.
Islam, by contrast, establishes relationships between people in a clear and harmonious manner, regardless of their religion, nationality or skin colour. We have spoken about this, as have the prosecution witnesses–namely, a representative of the imams of Crimea’s mosques–as well as the defence witnesses. In particular, they spoke about the fact that the Caliphate is a legitimate aspiration of every Muslim. It is not merely the pseudo-Caliphate established by ISIS, but rather the state founded by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the radiant city of Medina, with its harmonious society, where Christians, Jews, idol worshippers and Muslims lived together in peace and accord. And this is the truth, because that state existed–or, rather, was built–on a spiritual foundation. And it is solely for expressing the ideas I have outlined above that we find ourselves behind prison walls.
Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality of modern Russia, which has failed to learn from its history. As one ruler said: ‘Past mistakes do not justify repeating them.’ Tragedy is a lesson for the living, an opportunity to gain wisdom, not a truth by which one should live.
The same point is made in one of the books I came across at the Krasnodar pre-trial detention centre. It was written by Russian legal scholars Matuzov and Malko. In their joint work entitled Theory of State and Law, Chapter Six states: ‘The ideological and party-based totalitarian rule that prevailed in our country, founded not only on uniformity of thought but also on uniformity of action, instilled in people such complexes and stereotypes as fear, fear of responsibility, passivity, apathy, conformism, servility, thoughtless obedience, reverence for certain individuals, and the reflexive response that nothing could be done. All of this became deeply rooted in public consciousness and, for many, turned into a philosophy of life.’
They go on to say: ‘This was manifested, in particular, in such common expressions as: “My house is at the edge of the village” [meaning “It’s none of my business”], “This does not concern me”, “I’m just an ordinary person”, “The authorities know best”, “Initiative is punished”, “Don’t stick your neck out”, “Know your place”, “Don’t take on more than you should”. This kind of mentality reflected the attitudes of both the little people and the cogs in the machine, of those who govern and those who are governed. Among the latter, the prevailing attitude was: “Don’t make trouble”, “Sit tight and wait”, “Your job is to wait at home for us”.’
Even the rapper Detsl, who died during one of his concerts, recited the lines ‘The FSB protects the Kremlin’ in one of his performances, in the song Blue and Red Lights. So, what we are being charged with is connected solely to the fact that we do not want to be part of a faceless mass, that we do not want to be sheep or mankurts–people stripped of their memory and identity. As I have pointed out, our criminal case has no substance. There are no victims in our criminal case, no civil claimant and no civil defendant.
Nevertheless, my Crimean Tatar people, as part of the wider Muslim community, remain unbroken and refuse to tolerate injustice, whether directed against themselves or others. The Arab world bears witness to this, particularly its Muslim population, who took to the streets in peaceful demonstrations and demanded the resignation of their tyrannical rulers…
(The judge interrupts Saliev.)
…And the fact that my people are like this is a life-giving force that stems from Islam, which urges people to stand against evil and violence. And this is precisely why we are being persecuted today.
Therefore, I would like to conclude by expressing my profound gratitude to my unbroken people, to Ukraine and to the international community for their moral, informational and material support, as well as for supporting our families. May the Lord God repay you, and may peace and prosperity be upon your homes.
I address the court and wish to say that it should immediately bring our criminal case to an end–that is, discontinue the proceedings and release us from the courtroom so that we may return to our families and loved ones. It should not become part of the machinery of a repressive criminal regime.
I would like to conclude with the words of a poem entitled Russia’s Empty Bell Towers, written by journalist, public figure and national movement activist Lilia Budzhurova.
The following lines:
‘If only we could reclaim what was stolen
And bring back those who were exiled.’
April 1980.
I’ve finished!
12 September 2020,
Southern District Military Court, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
Source: Crimean Solidarity.
Read more about the political prisoner.
Photo: Crimean Solidarity.