Virati Rustem Rizaevich

Virati Rustem Rizaevich, born on 28 December 1964, is a Crimean Tatar.

On 16 March 2023, he was detained in Novooleksiivka, Kherson Oblast, which is occupied by the Russian authorities, on charges of participating in the Crimean Tatar volunteer battalion named after Noman Chelebidzhihan, but was released the next day. He was subsequently detained again and remanded in custody under Part 2 of Article 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (‘Participation in an armed formation on the territory of a foreign state, not provided for by the legislation of that state, for purposes contrary to the interests of the Russian Federation’). He was sentenced to 8 years in a strict regime penal colony.

On 10 February 2025, his family learned of his death in prison in Dimitrovgrad.