Nariman Dzhelyalov and four other Crimean Tatars were arrested by the FSB on September 4, 2021. They were accused of blowing up a gas station in the village of Perevalne on August 23 of the same year. According to the FSBʼs version, Dzhelyalov, together with Ukrainian intelligence, tricked cousins Asan and Aziz Akhtemov to plant explosives with a clockwork mechanism, and also helped Ukrainian intelligence to transfer it from Kherson to Crimea by hiding cheese in the head. The other two detainees, the FSB said, were not involved in the explosion, but they were made witnesses by the prosecution. The gas pump, which supplies gas to the military part of the coastal defense of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was allegedly blown up by the brothers Akhtemov and Dzhelyalov out of hatred for Russia and for a reward of $2,000. Dzhelyalov himself said that he was detained for going to Kyiv for the first summit of the Crimean Platform. Before the summit, the Kremlin threatened those who would attend it with consequences. The explosion happened on the first working day of the summit.
Dzhelyalov spent two years in a pre-trial detention center in Crimea. During this time, he was forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital, in his cell he learned about the full-scale invasion and his fatherʼs death. In September 2022, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and the Akhtemov brothers to 15 and 13 years. The main evidence was the confessions of the Akhmetovs in the crime and Dzhelyalovʼs participation. Although they stated in court that they were beaten and tortured by electric shock by the FSB. In 2023, the appeals court, to which the convicts appealed, strengthened the sentences — the men had to spend the first three years in prison, and only then in a colony, where the conditions are less strict.
In September 2021, Nariman Dzhelyalov was arrested by the Simferopol Court.
Nariman, have you found out for yourself what actually happened at the gas station on August 23, 2021?
Nariman: In court, a man who lived nearby with a gas pipe was questioned. He said he heard a bang, went outside and saw gas coming out of the pipe. There was no fire. We asked in court how an explosion could happen without a flame. The expert on gas pipes in the court was always getting away with it. Asan caught his hand. According to the examination, there was molten copper at the site of the explosion, which was allegedly used in an improvised explosive device. At the court hearing, they said that copper melts at a temperature of a thousand degrees, and gas ignites at a temperature of about 600. The expert was asked if the gas would catch fire at a temperature of 1,000 degrees? The expert replied: "Of course."
Iʼm sure some people turned off the gas flow, blew up the pipe and restarted the flow, so it came out through the hole without a flame. I have no reason to believe that the man who heard the clap was lying.
What was the evidence that you recruited the brothers and organized the transportation of explosives?
Nariman: There was only one proof — the witnesses were tortured and they signed statements against me. According to the case file, I did not plant explosives, did not take them into my hands and did not bring them to Crimea. As if I knew Riza in Kyiv and Asan in Crimea, I introduced them to each other. I also asked the carrier to take an unknown package from Riza and bring it to Crimea. The carrier was a classified witness in the case file, we did not see him in court, but we heard his voice, which means that such a person most likely doesnʼt exist.
Five of us were arrested, three were convicted. The two were not convicted, but were made witnesses for the prosecution. I thank them very much for saying in court that they testified in the case after being tortured by the FSB.
In November 2023, Asan Akhtemov was taken to the Vladimirsky Central, a prison for particularly dangerous criminals. Asan collects sockets in prison. Aziz Akhtemov was moved together with Dzhelyalov to prisons in the Krasnoyarsk Territory .
The brothers Asan (left) and Aziz Akhmetov stated in court that the Russian security forces forced their confessions and testimony against Dzhelyalov.
Were you tortured in the pretrial detention center?
Nariman: No, they were beaten once, as if for education. Acquaintances saw how they were tortured in pre-trial detention centers — the windows of some cells overlooked the windows of the administrative building, where the operative service conducts interrogations.
Did people in the pre-trial detention center know that the invasion had begun, or did they hide it from you?
Nariman: I was in the special unit. This is a nook in the corridor of SIZO No. 1. There are six cells for two people. Two cells had a TV. In the evening, you go to the door and shout: "Pasha, whatʼs the news?" He goes to his door and tells that. Leviza brought news, statistics of the General Staff, how many Russians were killed, analyzes of the Institute for the Study of War to the pretrial detention center. I retold everything in the cell. We have set up a news channel so that political prisoners do not lose hope that Ukraine is fighting. When Bucha was liberated, Leviza came, sat next to me and cried all the time.
Leviza, you said that there is an atmosphere of fear in Crimea. Were there people who were afraid to talk to you after your arrest?
Leviza: I always supported Nariman, but sometimes we discussed that he is always absent from work, I am alone at home with the children. After the arrest, they realized the value of what he was doing. When he was taken away, people came to us every day, to whom he went with help. Our door did not close.
The FSB was watching the house. They watched who was coming and had conversations with them. They asked why you go to the Dzhelalovs so often. People had the courage to say that they would continue to come.
On October 2, 2023, Nariman Dzhelyalov was transferred from the Simferopol pre-trial detention center to the prison in Minusinsk. The transfer lasted for a month and a half through pre-trial detention centers in Krasnodar, Saratov, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg and Krasnoyarsk. On the way, he caught a bad cold, varicose veins and spinal hernias worsened, because he was not allowed to sit or lie down during the day. Dzhelyalov was taken out of Crimea secretly. It took only a few weeks for the family to find out about his whereabouts.
Nariman, you were brought to the prison in Minusinsk in November 2023. Serial killers, bandits, and rapists are serving their sentences there. How did they react to the fact that Ukrainians were sitting next to them?
Nariman: There are not only Ukrainians, but also Russians who were convicted for political reasons. I thought we would be kept separately — Ukrainians and Russians, but this is physically impossible, there are so many political prisoners. There were legends about the brutal prison conditions in Minusinsk, but when I was there, the situation improved. Criminals looked at us politicians and said: "Who are you all, letʼs find out." They have a special world, they were unpleasantly surprised, because political prisoners didnʼt always want to follow their rules.
A prison differs from a colony in that convicts sit in cells and cannot move around the territory. Did you spend all the time before your release, which is almost a year, in a cell?
Nariman: I spent so long in cells for two that I couldnʼt read or watch TV, so I went to work in a sewing shop. It was the right decision. In the workshop I met many prisoners from Crimea, there was Artem from Luhansk region, he was arrested after the start of the full-scale invasion and accused of preparing a terrorist attack. He said that their village was one of the first to be captured in 2022. Once he drank a little with friends, said something patriotic — and he and his nephew were reported. The FSB knocked out the confession. Before prison, he taught biology in a rural school.
Yura was from Skadovsk. He was tortured in Chongar, where the Russians made an unofficial pre-trial detention center. For a long time, he did not sign the confession that he attacked the collaborators, and then the Russians began to torture his wife with electric current, and he signed everything to save her. The woman was released, she left for Europe.
What was sewn in the shop?
Nariman: Clothing for the prisoners. We had a tailoring teacher, she is responsible for voluntary assistance to the Russian military in Minusinsk. Once she asked me to help sew protective blankets for thermal imagers, itʼs a kind of sandwich. I told her: "Donʼt even offer me." It is interesting that there were many different nationalities among us — from Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and a few Russians. All refused, except for two Russians. The guy from Tuva agreed, he went to fight [later]. I asked him why. He said that he did not want to spend the whole term in jail.
Posters were hung in the prison: "Join: we pay half a million rubles immediately and then 204,000-210,000 rubles every month." Few people from the prison agreed, because a real bandit will not go to work for the state. And many people were taken from the colonies.
Leviza: In the Krasnoyarsk Krai, two colonies were closed because there were no prisoners — many convicts agreed to go to war.
Dzhelyalovʼs letter to his friends from a Russian prison, written 11 days before the exchange.
A week before the exchange, Leviza and her two children — Dzemil and Eminye — met Nariman for the first time after he was moved from Simferopol to Russia. On June 20, they returned home, and on the 28th, contact with him disappeared. The prison received a short reply to the letter: "The letter was not delivered, the addressee has disappeared." The woman raised all her acquaintances to their feet, found a lawyer in Minusinsk. He said that Nariman was being moved to the Krasnoyarsk pre-trial detention center. That same day, at four oʼclock, Mustafa Dzhemilev called her and, after listening to the whole story, said: "Leviza, we are going to meet Nariman in the evening. Just donʼt tell anyone, itʼs a very difficult exchange."
Leviza: From that minute I walked around the kitchen. Around nine oʼclock in the evening, Refat-aga called: "I havenʼt seen him yet, but he is in Ukraine." I hung up and the news about the exchange poured in. Everyone started calling, coming to visit, saying that they had another national holiday. The older children were in the summer camp. I call them and hear them shout with joy. And then they come and tell: "Mom, all the children were crying with us."
Nariman: When Leviza found out that I "was moved" somewhere, I was not in prison for several days. On Tuesday morning, June 25, everything was as usual, and at noon they were told to pack things. They took me to one of the chiefs, and he calmly said: "You are being exchanged. We are now preparing the documents."
The head of the prison came, he is more or less normal, he showed me around. Letters and money were given. When I took off my robe and put on my tattered clothes, I felt a physical pleasure. Two FSB officers politely said that I was to be handcuffed and blindfolded. We drove somewhere for five hours. My eyes were covered with a bandage, but the sun could be felt through it. When I opened my eyes, I realized that I had been brought to the Krasnoyarsk pre-trial detention center. I stayed there for two days in solitary confinement, and on June 28, at five in the morning, the journey to Ukraine began.
The eyes were blindfolded the whole time. Around seven in the morning, we arrived at the airport, got on the plane, it was an ordinary flight. Passengers started coming in — voices, smells of perfumes, laughter. For me it was a forgotten world. In Moscow, all the passengers got off, the FSB officers told me to get up. I hear the stewardess asking: "Can I give him water?". FSB officers say that I do not want to. And she again: "You flew for five hours, drank water, why doesnʼt he want?" They stopped. The flight attendant leaves and says: "Whatever he would do, he is a person." I felt so good, as if drunk. We walked along the plane and I felt someone running to me and handing me a glass of water. I grabbed it. The FSB officers surrendered. I didnʼt want to drink, but I drank so that her efforts would not be in vain.
Then we drove all day by car, bus, flew on a helicopter for three hours to Belarus. There were five of us prisoners, men and a woman. We were lined up at the border with Ukraine. The handcuffs were removed, the blindfold was cut off. We stood tired, hands behind our backs, heads down — we were used to prison rules. Suddenly I hear behind me in Ukrainian: "Good afternoon. Everything is fine. Raise your head." I saw that five people had passed in the direction of Belarus. They carried bags in wheelchairs. Someone carried our bags, the woman was put on a cart because she could not walk. She was kept for many years somewhere in the occupied Donetsk region. In front stood our guys in bulletproof vests, with weapons. I think they would kill everyone there, saving us from the captors.
Meeting with Mustafa Dzhemilev (left) and Mejlis Chairman Refat Chubarov after the exchange.
Омбудсман Лубінець Дмитро / Telegram
Do you know who you were traded for?
Nariman: No, and I will not find out. I didnʼt even remember their faces.
Nariman, the fact that you will not be able to return to the occupied Crimea is expected. Everyone was worried whether the Russians would release your children and wife from Crimea. Was it one of the agreements during the exchange or were you fleeing the occupation?
Nariman: There was no agreement about the family, and I was afraid that they would not be released and would be held as hostages. Friends said that they had to leave urgently. I excluded myself from the negotiations, said, here is Leviza, come to an agreement. Because I couldnʼt stand it. Before they landed in Istanbul, I was worried as if I had given birth to my fifth child.
Leviza: We didnʼt have a special conversation about whether we would stay in Crimea or not, the only question was when we should leave. I hoped that I would have at least a week for packing things up, but it turned out to be two days. We drove quietly. Only close people knew about this. We left earlier than planned — me, four children, and two adults helped with the escort. In 14 hours we got to Sochi, from there to Istanbul, and then to Chisinau.
The first meeting with the family after the Russian captivity.
In 2019, Ukraine handed over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague 13 informational messages with evidence of war crimes committed by Russians in Crimea. The largest ICC field office outside The Hague currently operates in Ukraine. Nariman, have you thought about having the case of your imprisonment considered by the ICC?
Nariman: Putin formally pardoned me, I donʼt know if this affects the consideration of my case in international courts. Now I am preparing to testify at the Prosecutorʼs Office of Crimea, which works in Kyiv. Personally, I have no need to prove anything, but if it helps bring Russia to justice, I will.
Will an absentee trial in Ukraine against those who arrested and convicted you be successful?
Nariman: To some extent, it is still justice. Although the statements of the Russian oppositionists, who were exchanged, do not give hope that something will change in Russia and criminals will be punished, even after the decisions of the courts in Ukraine. I think that if these oppositionists come to power in Russia, the first thing they will do is pardon those who punished them. They will also say that they are doing it for the sake of consensus in Russian society. It will be a mistake for Russia and for us too.
Many Ukrainians want to separate themselves from Russia. But this is our neighbour, with whom we share the longest common border. If we do not have contacts with the Russian opposition, then we have contacts with those who take care of them — the USA, the EU. It is necessary to act through them.
Leviza: I would fence myself off. We have a proverb: if you have a Russian neighbour, hold an ax behind your back.
Which of the Russians do you suggest keeping in touch with?
Nariman: In prison, I wrote a letter to Vladimir Kara-Murza, when he was behind bars. There is Ilya Yashin. They were jailed for accusing the Russian Federation of the war in Ukraine. Now they have been exchanged and something has happened to them, judging by their statements. The thing is, what should we do with them — forget, curse? Iʼm not saying letʼs congratulate them, but someone needs to talk to them. The world community sees them as possible Russian leaders. If we close ourselves off from these processes, we will again be abandoned without support, as in 2014.
From a Russian prison, Dzhelialov wrote a letter to the Russian oppositionist Volodymyr Kara-Murza (far left).
My last question. In prison, didnʼt you regret that you stayed to live in the occupation? All this could have been avoided if you had moved to Kyiv, like other Crimean Tatars, and engaged in politics.
Nariman: In prison, I read from Lev Rubinstein that freedom cannot be taught, it can only be transmitted through oneʼs own behavior. I went to the "Crimean Platform" out of desperation. We were squeezed hard in Crimea, and I wanted to show people that there is no need to be afraid.
A week before the exchange, me, Artem from the Luhansk region and Yura from the Kherson region were summoned by the FSB. We did not understand what the officers wanted. One of them said: "If you felt threatened, why didnʼt you leave Crimea." I snapped: "What the hell do I have to leave my homeland for? You came there, you leave." The FSB officer was stunned. When Yura returned to the cell, he was nervous. He said he recognized this FSB officer — he tortured him in the Kherson region. Here recognized him by eyes and voice.
Leviza: If it werenʼt for Nariman, I probably wouldnʼt have left Crimea. This is our home, the Crimean Tatars have no other homeland, we fought for half a century to return. This is our pain, and for us Crimea is a sacred land. Leaving it out of fear that something might be done to you is not an argument for us. We stay, but that doesnʼt mean we accept their rules.
Alex Kuzmin / «Babel’»
Translated from Ukrainian by Anton Semyzhenko.
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