On December 5, 2024, a court in Bugulma ordered the pre-trial detention of Fazil Valiakhmetov, a 70-year-old veteran of the Tatar national movement. The Telegram channel of the Independent Tatarstan Government in Exile reported this on January 6.
Activists did not disclose the specific charges against Fazil Valiakhmetov but stated that they are related to his anti-war publications on the internet.
Fazil Valiakhmetov is a historian, activist, and photojournalist. In May 1991, he participated in a political hunger strike in Kazan, advocating for Tatarstan’s sovereignty and opposing the Russian presidential election in the region.
Valiakhmetov also spearheaded the establishment of a Tatar lyceum and magazine in Bugulma and managed a library and museum dedicated to the repressed Tatar public figure Khadi Atlasi.
This is at least the second case in 2024 involving criminal charges against a veteran of the Tatar national movement. In September, law enforcement searched the home of 73-year-old activist Zinnur Agliullin in Naberezhnye Chelny. He was charged with repeated incitement of hatred or enmity (Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code) for his statement about "Russians killing other peoples."
