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Crimean Tatar Family Torn Apart: Brothers Imprisoned, Home Seized, Health Failing in Russian Custody
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Russian occupation authorities have imprisoned two Crimean Tatar brothers, Rustem and Bekir Gugurik, in cases that human-rights monitors describe as lawless and emblematic of abuses in occupied Crimea. The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) reported on October 6.
According to KHPG, both men remain in custody as authorities also moved into a family-owned home following their arrests.
Eskender Bariiev, chairman of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (CTRC), said investigators targeted 62-year-old Bekir after seizing a computer used by his son who left Ukraine for Europe in 2021. “During the search they found the ‘evidence’ of the man’s guilt—a picture with the inscription ‘Crimea is Ukraine,’ Bariiev said..
“It should be noted that Bekir Gugurik, a rural resident, does not know how to use a computer or a modern touch phone,” he added.
Bekir was reportedly sent to a detention center for two months and pressured by a state-appointed lawyer to “plead guilty in exchange for leniency.” Bariiev also noted that Bekir’s younger brother, Rustem, is already behind bars on politically motivated grounds.
Rustem Gugurik was previously sentenced by a Russia-controlled court in Simferopol to eight and a half years, part of a broader trend of prosecutions of Crimean Tatars using anti-terror charges, according to KHPG and other monitors. Independent outlets and civic groups have since reported a deterioration in his health, including progressive hearing loss and limited access to medical care.
“He is losing his hearing and needs medication for his heart… He is receiving virtually no medical care,” one April 2025 report said. Telegram channels covering Crimea have also relayed family concerns that he has “practically” lost hearing in his remaining ear.
KHPG’s latest account says authorities not only detained the brothers but also moved into one of the family’s properties amid ongoing proceedings — a measure lawyers describe as extrajudicial and unsupported by valid jurisdiction in occupied territory.
“Systematic torture and the impunity accompanying it” are enabling such practices, KHPG noted in summarizing the CTRC’s assessment.
The Gugurik detentions come as the CTRC’s quarterly analysis found persistent abuses in Crimea in 2025, with arbitrary arrests, health-threatening prison conditions, and pressure on families of detainees. “The tendencies of human rights violations in occupied Crimea remain unchanged,” the group reported in April.
Earlier, it was reported that Crimean Tatar journalist Remzi Bekirov, sentenced on terrorism-related charges, was punished in a Russian prison for performing daily Muslim prayers.
