Detention: On November 23, 2017, in occupied Crimea, Kazim Ametov was detained by security forces along with three other Crimean Tatars – Bekir Degermendzhi, Asan Chapukh, and Ruslan Trubach. They were accused of extorting Yusuf Aytan, a Turkish citizen. The detainees explained they were merely trying to recover funds stolen from Vedzhie Kashka, a veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement. Vedzhie Kashka, 83, who witnessed the detentions, experienced a health decline on the spot and died in an ambulance. The case became known as the 'Vedzhie Kashka case.'

Sentence: In April 2019, an occupation court sentenced Kazim Ametov to a 3-year suspended sentence under Part 2 of Article 163 of the Russian Criminal Code ('extortion'). After serving the suspended sentence, his conviction was lifted in April 2021 by the Sudak City Court. Kazim Ametov is released.

Kazim Abilvapovich Ametov was born on April 9, 1957, in Bekabad, Uzbek SSR, where his parents were deported by Soviet authorities from their native Crimean village of Goza (now Solnechnaya Dolina). He received technical education as a turner and welder. Due to exile conditions, he could not attend higher education and had to work from a young age to support his family.

In 1989, Kazim Ametov married, and in 1990, when the opportunity arose, he returned with his family to Crimea, from where his family was deported in 1944. The initial years after returning were extremely difficult: Crimean Tatars were not given permanent jobs or registration. Ametov took on odd jobs and sold clothes from Odessa to make a living.

Family: wife, two daughters – Mavile and Nadiye (the latter born in 2007, 11 years old at the time of this profile), and a son. Despite all difficulties, Kazim Ametov actively participated in the public life of the Crimean Tatar community. In 2000, he became the head of the local Mejlis of the Sudak district. He was known as a sincere person, empathetic to others' suffering.

During his detention in Simferopol pre-trial detention centre, Ametov was held in inhumane conditions. In November 2020, he filed a lawsuit against the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia over 'inhumane detention conditions.' In February 2022, an appellate court reduced the compensation awarded to him for the torturous conditions in detention. In October 2021, after his release, he was fined for participating in events on September 4 (apparently related to human rights actions). The court was compelled to provide documents regarding Ametov's detention conditions in Simferopol pre-trial detention centre only after a court decision in June 2021.

Information used from open sources: Crimean Solidarity, Radio Liberty, Crimea.Realities, CrimeaSOS.

Photo: Crimea.Realities.

Updated: 03.07.2026.