GLASNOST DEFENSE FOUNDATION'S DIGEST No. 176 (March 29, 2004)

Ukraine - Autonomous Crimean Republic. Participant in assault on journalists detained in Simferopol.

By Mark Agatov,
GDF staff correspondent in Ukraine and Crimea.

Crimean police have detained a participant in the assault on a TV crew in Simeiz which resulted in heavy bodily damage inflicted on Vadim Telichev, cameraman for Russian television's Channel One (for details, see the COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES section of GDF Digest №. 173).

Kurtseyit Abdullayev, member of the Crimean Tartars' Council of Representatives under the President of Ukraine, has actually confirmed in an interview for local journalists that he personally led the gang of hooligans who beat up the cameraman. But even after that confession, police were in no hurry detain the "public activist". Soon after he had happily got away with his first law violation, Mr. Abdullayev committed another crime.

Just a few days after the assault in Simeiz, about 50 Crimean Tartars raided the Cotton bar in Simferopol, leaving nine bar visitors with heavy scull traumas and knife wounds. The victims said Kurtseyit Abdullayev had been seen among the attackers.

Having learnt about the law violations in the Crimea, President Leonid Kuchma sent Ukraine's Prosecutor General Gennady Vassilyev to the peninsula to personally supervise investigation of the assault on the TV journalists. K. Abdullayev was detained and accused of committing a series of crimes.

A group of Crimean Tartars attempted to free their leader by blocking the Interior Ministry Department in Simferopol for a few hours. However, their attempt to exert pressure on the law enforcers failed. K. Abdullayev is awaiting trial in detention, and the police have promised to lead the Simeiz assault investigation all the way to trial.