The missing Crimean Tatar was found at the police department. He could have been beaten

Eldar Mensitov, 53-year-old Crimean Tatar, ex-chairman of the Majlis of the village of Molodezhnoe, was found on the evening of June 11 at the Zheleznodorozhny police department. The man could have been beaten. This was reported by “Crimean Solidarity” with reference to the detainee’s lawyer Safie Shabanova, who managed to meet with him.

His wife reported Mensitov’s disappearance on June 10. Before this, the man contacted her on the afternoon of June 9, and then did not return home from work. Mensitov's phone was turned off. His car was found near the Crimean Privoz market in Simferopol: Mensitov bought groceries and was going to go home, but as he was leaving the city, he was detained and transferred to an official car by traffic police officers. The Crimean's personal car was driven to the market.

Traffic police officers handed Eldar Mensitov over to “masked men,” who took him to the basement and interrogated him. According to lawyer Shabanova, the man has “traces of physical impact.” The next day, the defense lawyer says, Mensitov was handed over to the employees of Center “E”, then taken to the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Simferopol.

The court arrested the Crimean man for 15 days under the article on disobedience to the police (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code): according to the security forces, the man resisted and ran away during arrest. Mensitov did not admit guilt.

• In September 2021, Mensitov’s house was searched in connection with the case of sabotage on the gas pipeline near Perevalny. Then he was detained and taken to the FSB department in Simferopol, but later released. In 2022, three Crimean residents were sentenced to terms ranging from 13 to 17 years in this case. According to investigators, in August 2021, two of them, on instructions from the Ukrainian special services, installed an explosive device on a gas pipeline in the village of Perevalnoye, which led to an explosion and a short-term shutdown of gas supply. The third was accused of allegedly introducing them to a Ukrainian intelligence officer.
• The Supreme Court of Crimea recognized the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people as an extremist organization and decided to liquidate it on April 26, 2016.