“Our Server is a very kind, sincere, righteous person. Wherever he studied, wherever he worked, we always heard only words of gratitude, we were always proud of him. It is very insulting that such men are accused of terrorism. Terrorism and Server are mutually exclusive words. He always was good to people, always very sensitive. When all these repressions and searches started here, he always tried to come to people's aid,” recalls Venera Mustafaieva, mother of political prisoner Server Mustafaiev.
On May 21, 2018, the occupying authorities of Crimea detained the Crimean human rights activist and coordinator of the Crimean Solidarity initiative, Server Mustafaiev. He faces 10 to 20 years in prison; Server, like most Crimean Tatar prisoners, is accused of “terrorism” and “attempting to commit insurrection.”
"We will never forget that day in our lives. It was very scary. They came at 6 am, wanted to break down our door, broke in, searched the house, and took away Server,” Venera Mustafaieva recalls. “What should a person do to deserve people in masks and with machine guns breaking into his house?! This was just another act of abuse against our people, against the Crimean Muslims.”
Server Mustafaiev worked as an executive director in one of the companies in Sevastopol. When the persecution of Crimean Tatars began in Crimea, he went to court, filmed them, spread information on the Internet, helped the families of Crimean Tatar prisoners, and practiced international advocacy. He wanted the world to know what was really going on in occupied Crimea.
Server is currently being held in №1 pre-trial detention center in Rostov-on-Don. His case is pending trial in court. Amnesty International has recognized him as a prisoner of conscience and a political prisoner, and the journalistic community as his colleague. His wife and four children are waiting for him at home. At the time of Server's arrest, his youngest child was just two months old.
“The children are growing up without a father, and it hurts so much to witness it. They keep asking when Daddy will come back. We promise them that he will return soon,” the mother of the political prisoner says. “Our men are still trying to prove that they are not guilty of anything, that they are the worthy sons of our people, that they are our pride. We really want Server to return home, and we really want people to support and help us in this.”
