Kurtamet Appaz Khalilovich

On July 23, 2022, 19-year-old Appaz Kurtamet left the village of Novoaleksiyevka in the Genichesk district of the Kherson region and went to occupied Crimea to visit relatives. His contact with his family was interrupted at the "Chonhar" checkpoint. For nearly three months, Kurtamet's whereabouts and legal status were unknown. There was also no information about the reason for his detention or the charges brought against him. Appaz Kurtamet only got in touch with his family on October 5, 2022. He called home, allegedly from the investigator's phone, and reported that he was in a pre-trial detention center in Crimea and needed a lawyer. Appaz Kurtamet was accused of financing a terrorist organization. According to the investigation, he lent 500 hryvnias to his acquaintance, who, as Appaz learned after the money transfer, serves in the Noman Chelebidzhikhan Battalion. On October 10, 2022, the Russian-controlled Kievsky District Court of Simferopol sent Kurtamet into custody. On April 20, 2023, Judge Oksana Karchevskaya of the Kievsky District Court of Simferopol found Appaz Kurtamet guilty and sentenced him to 7 years of imprisonment, with the first year to be served in prison and the remaining term in a strict regime penal colony. On August 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Crimea, chaired by Judge Dmitry Olegovich Mikhailov, upheld the sentence.