“I am living by hope alone. We handed over documents to Bakhchysarai raion investigating bodies seven months ago, but no actions have been taken. I phoned investigators, but they either ignore this or don’t answer the calls, knowing my number. I don’t know the situation now. I’m trying to do something and search, but I don’t know which door to knock on and where to apply,” Ervin’s father Umer Inrahimov says. Several dozens of people are listening to Umer’s short statement on Skype – they came to take part in the 11th monthly action aimed at drawing attention to forced disappearances on the occupied peninsula. The action, organized by the NGO Krym SOS, is being held near the Russian Embassy in Ukraine.
Ervin, member of the Executive Committee of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars and member of the regional Mejlis, was abducted on May 24, 2016, on Bakhchysarai’s bypass road. An outdoor security camera recorded the moment of kidnapping: Ervin is trying to run away, but people in Russian traffic police uniform catch and push him into a minibus. Russia’s Investigatory Committee has opened a case under Article 126 of the Criminal Code (“Abduction of an Individual”), but no investigation is in fact being conducted. Krym SOS activists have shown this story in the short documentary film A Year without Ervin.
“The Ervin case is one of the most terrible and telling. But, for example, it will be three years one of these days since Timur Shaimardanov was kidnapped in Crimea,” Krym SOS deputy coordinator Yevhenia Andreiuk says. “A total of 19 people have been kidnapped in three years, and no one knows where they are. Six people, listed as abducted, were found dead. Two kidnapped people were later found in jails – they are facing political crime charges. Another 17 people were kidnapped and freed. There were a total of 43 instances of forced disappearances.”
Krym SOS reports that an analysis showed that Russian governmental bodies were implicated in 36 instances of these crimes. More often than not, neither the Russian authorities, which in fact control Crimea, nor the Ukrainian side investigate these cases.
“The tendency is to speak about forced disappearances less than about political prisoners. It is not always clear whether these disappearances are linked to the occupational authorities,” Andreiuk adds. “But this matter always remains topical.”
