Detention: On November 7, 2016, a Russia-controlled court in Simferopol sentenced Crimean Tatar activist Nedim Khalilov to deportation from Crimea for lacking a passport. He was then arrested and placed in a Russian filtration camp in the village of Vardane.

Sentence: The court decision to deport Crimean Tatar activist Nedim Khalilov to Uzbekistan was made on November 7, 2016, in case 5a-2374/2016. The formal reason was his lack of a Russian or Ukrainian passport, as he had lived in Crimea with a Soviet passport since 1986. On the same day, he was arrested, transported out of Crimea, and placed in a filtration camp — the Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Nationals in the village of Vardane, Krasnodar Krai.

The Crimean Court of Appeals upheld the decision on November 8, 2016, stating that Khalilov posed a threat to the national security of the Russian Federation. On May 15, 2018, he was transferred by air to Tashkent without prior notice.

On January 20, 2023, Nedim Khalilov died in Tashkent after a long illness. He was 63 years old.

Nedim Abdulaevich Khalilov was a Crimean Tatar activist and participant in the National Movement of Crimean Tatars since 1986. He arrived in Crimea from his parents' deportation locations in September 1986. In 1991, he founded his own construction company and began building his own home, but later lost everything. Due to difficult circumstances, he moved to Uzbekistan in 2000, where he obtained an Uzbek passport in 2001. He returned to Crimea in 2002 and registered his presence at a Simferopol address. After his Uzbek passport expired in 2009, he deliberately did not renew it, seeking to obtain the status of a stateless person. "With Russia's arrival, 'due to registration violations,' I was expelled from Crimea," he said.

On November 21, 2016, he began a hunger strike, demanding recognition of his right to live in his homeland. On January 3, 2017, he ended the hunger strike after phone persuasion from the assistant to the Crimean Vice Premier, Ruslan Balbek, who promised to resolve the issue — but did not fulfill his promise. In the summer of 2017, Khalilov was transferred to a Temporary Detention Center in the city of Georgievsk, Stavropol Krai, where he suffered a hypertensive crisis with a blood pressure of 260/150 — doctors prevented a stroke and heart attack.

In Tashkent, Khalilov found himself without documents, money, or a permanent place of residence. "I am absolutely unnecessary to the Republic of Uzbekistan, but there is an unofficial FSB directive — I am prohibited from leaving Uzbekistan under any pretext," he said in 2019. Despite his difficult situation, he continued to fight through courts and international institutions, demanding the right to return to Crimea. "I live with the hope of returning to my homeland, Crimea," he described his situation in recent years.

Khalilov's case is a unique example among Crimean prisoners of the Kremlin — he was not convicted under a criminal article but was forcibly expelled from occupied Crimea as a "foreign national," then effectively isolated in Uzbekistan under unofficial FSB control and deprived of the opportunity to return to his homeland. He died without realizing his dream of returning to Crimea.

Information used from open sources: Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Radio Liberty (Crimea.Realii).

Photo: Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

Last updated: 03.07.2026.