Nazim Sheikhmambetov
Nazim Sheikhmambetov is a Crimean human rights defender and lawyer. Since the occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, he has been actively involved with the Crimean Solidarity Movement, defending the rights of Crimean Tatars, who have become one of the major targets for the authorities, alongside civil society activists and journalists. Nazim Sheikhmambetov acts as a defense attorney in a number of politically-motivated cases, where Russian authorities target representatives of Hizb-ut Tahrir.
The environment for the work of human rights defenders (HRDs) in the Russian Federation is difficult, especially for those who defend and promote the rights of LGBTI people, ethnic and religious minorities, refugees, as well as activists of the North Caucasus and the unlawfully annexed Crimean Peninsula. HRDs are often subjected to acts of harassment, surveillance, physical attacks, threat, raids and searches on their offices and homes, slander and smear campaigns, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment, as well as violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. There have also been cases where HRDs have been murdered as a result of their work.
