Free Voices of Crimea: a documentary book about Crimean political prisoners to be published

A bilingual book in Ukrainian and English editions will tell the stories of Russian occupation regime’s victims and help advocate the rights of Ukrainian citizens imprisoned by the Russian Federation.

Free Voices of Crimea constitute a series of 16 politically imprisoned civic journalists’ features. The project team tells the stories of their life, detention, and imprisonment. The publications include extracts from their diaries, letters, and speeches in courts. The texts’ authors research their court cases, communicate with families and human rights defenders.

This is a joint initiative of PEN Ukraine, The Ukrainians Media, Human Rights Centre ZMINA, and Vivat Publishing House. It continues the #SolidarityWords campaign of PEN Ukraine and Zmina in support of politically imprisoned authors in occupied Crimea.

All the politically imprisoned journalists’ features will be published on The Ukrainians website. As of now, 4 materials have already been released. The first among them is the story of Nariman Celal, Crimean Tatar journalist and politician, deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, accused of ‘sabotage’ and sentenced to 17 years in prison by Russia. The second feature relates to Vladyslav Yesypenko, freelance journalist of Krym.Realii, sentenced by Russia to six years in a penal colony. The third story is that of Amet Suleymanov, civic journalist from Bakhchysarai and father of four, imprisoned by Russian occupiers for his commitment to telling the truth. The fourth one informs of Server Mustafaiev, human rights activist sentenced to 14 years in a high security prison. His family was deported from Crimea in 1944.

The features were edited by writer Anastasiia Levkova, author of the bestselling book And Behind the Isthmus of Perekop, There Still Is Land ("За Перекопом є земля"). The list of the project authors includes Oleksandra Iefymenko, Iryna Slavinska, Olesya Yaremchuk, Vira Kuryko, Rustem Khalilov, Olha Dukhnych, Ievheniia Henova.

The special project will form the basis for a documentary book compiled by Olesya Yaremchuk and co-founder of The Ukrainians Media Inna Bereznitska. The book will be published in the fall in Ukrainian and English versions by Vivat Publishing House. The publication will be of help to Ukrainian human rights activists in their advocacy work.

"The Voices of Free Crimea are aimed at drawing attention to the cases of Ukrainian hostages of the Kremlin. Each text is intended to keep the stories of illegally Russian-imprisoned Crimean journalists in Ukrainians’ focus. Another project’s point is advocacy, since it’s designed to facilitate international pressure upon Russia to free political prisoners. This is why the book is going to be published in both Ukrainian and English languages," says Tetyana Teren, executive director of PEN Ukraine and initiator of the project.

"Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the focus has somewhat shifted in the Ukrainian society. It happened for obvious reasons, of course, but the crimes against human rights and liberties that take place in occupied Crimea ended up shaded by the overall situation in the country. It’s beyond important therefore to talk about this and continue supporting those who stand up for their rights in extremely difficult conditions. Our mission is to preserve the Crimean political prisoners’ stories and try our best to make them heard in the global community. That is why the book which is to be released by the end of the year will be published in both Ukrainian and English languages," says Yuliia Orlova, director general of Vivat Publishing House.

As of April 24, 2024, 218 people have been illegally imprisoned by Russian occupiers; 133 of them are Crimean Tatars. 40 people (29 Crimean Tatars among them) have been arrested, 150 (98 Crimean Tatars among them) – imprisoned, 28 (6 Crimean Tatars among them) – detained without a status. 16 persons among the political prisoners are media activists, bloggers and civic journalists. These are figures from the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Apart from that, according to Viktoriia Nesterenko, project manager of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, during the years 2022-2023, 162 cases of attacks against professional media workers, civic journalists, editorial offices of printed and online media, Telegram channels, and online activists had been documented in Crimea.

"Crimean journalists are most frequently confronted with threatening, detentions, arrests and penalties on administrative charges," Viktoriia added.

The Free Voices of Crimea special project is being implemented with support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).