Ulkyar Hashimova

An activist and a resident of Derbent. She advocated for independence of the constituent peoples of Russia, including Azerbaijanis. On May 5, 2023, she was detained at the Sheremetyevo airport as she was about to fly to Belgrade. On the same day her mother's house in Dagestan was searched by the authorities. Gashimova was arrested for ten days under the charge of disobeying a government representative while crossing the border (Article 18.7 of the Administrative Code). The court ruling stated that the activist "was a member of the WhatsApp and Signal messenger communities aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation and supporting the armed forces of Ukraine, with threats of physical violence against members of the Russian security forces". Before her release from the detention facility, another report was filed against her for disobeying police officers (Part 1, Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code), resulting in an additional 15 days of administrative arrest. According to the court, the activist allegedly refused to show her documents and proceed to the police vehicle, which was supposed to take her to the police station. After her release Gashimova was flown to Makhachkala, where FSB officers confiscated her documents. She then returned to her native Derbent, but the law enforcers restricted her from communicating with human rights activists and acquaintances. Subsequently, it became known that the girl was sent to a pre-trial detention center in Makhachkala. In December, Anton Kolomitsyn, Gashimova's friend and manager of the Free Eurasia Telegram channel, suggested that she had been sent to a psychiatric hospital. Previously, the activist told him in letters that the investigators had threatened her several times with placement in compulsory treatment. Some time ago, Gashimova stopped sending letters to Kolomitsyn, and before that she had undergone a forensic psychiatric examination in the psychoneurological unit of SIZO-5 in Leninsk, Volgograd region. Her letters revealed that she was charged with publicly justifying terrorism and inciting extremism. She also reported that the investigator used force against her and that the administration of the pre-trial detention center sent her to a cold cell four times.

On 7 October 2024, a court located in the occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast of Ukraine sentenced Gashimova to four and a half years of imprisonment in a general regime penal colony.

You can read more about politically persecuted people in the Telegram channel OVD-Info LIVE and our politically motivated criminal prosecutions in Russia database