Russia sentences Crimean Tatar to 12.5 years over alleged donation to Ukraine’s military

Crimean Tatar Diana Havryliuk (Abdurashytova) has been sentenced in Russia to 12.5 years in a general-regime penal colony for alleged high treason, her husband Andrii Havryliuk told the Human Rights Centre ZMINA. Russian border guards had detained the woman at Sochi airport in October 2025.

Diana Havryliuk (Abdurashytova). Source: Qirim.medai

 The ruling was handed down by the Oktyabrsky District Court of Krasnodar in Russia. The court also imposed a fine of 150,000 roubles (about $1,860 or €1,670) and 1.5 years of restriction of liberty following the end of her prison term.

Andrii Havryliuk said the defence is preparing an appeal against the verdict.

Russian security forces detained Havryliuk on 31 October 2025 at Sochi airport following her return from Türkiye, where she had undergone surgery. She was travelling to temporarily occupied Crimea to visit her parents and an aunt who was in a critical condition.

On 1 November 2025, the Adler District Court of Sochi found the mother of three guilty of an administrative offence: disobeying Russian border service officers. Judge Aleksandr Kudrin sentenced her to 14 days of administrative detention. Her family expected her to be released after serving the sentence, but she never made contact.

Her relatives began searching for her, engaging lawyers and human rights defenders. They later learned that on the 11th day of her administrative detention, she had been transferred into the Russian Federation to Pre-Trial Detention Centre No 2 in Borisoglebsk, Voronezh Region, where, according to her husband, she was subjected to torture during interrogations.

On 17 March 2026, Havryliuk was moved to Pre-Trial Detention Centre No 1 in Krasnodar, where criminal proceedings were opened against her under the article on “high treason” over an alleged donation of 3,224 roubles to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to her family, a court extended her detention as a measure of restraint until 17 May 2026.

In the pre-trial detention centre, the Crimean Tatar was left without any medical care. Russians beat her on the head during interrogations.

ZMINA previously reported that in the temporarily occupied Luhansk Region (Oblast), 20-year-old Ukrainian Khrystyna Odyntsova had been jailed for 12 years for “high treason”.

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