In 2018, the FSB of the Russian Federation added Erol Veliyev to the “list of terrorists.” However, the people’s deputy’s assistant was detained on the territory of sovereign Moldova.
On Saturday afternoon, May 4, at the airport in Chisinau, while passing through border control upon arrival, Moldova’s special services detained Ukrainian citizen Erol Veliyev, who was returning to Kyiv. This was announced by the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov.
Chubarov noted that Crimean Tatar Erol Veliyev is an assistant to People’s Deputy Mustafa Dzhemilev. In 2018, he was added to Russia’s “list of terrorists” subject to arrest.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Embassy of Ukraine in Moldova were informed about the situation that arose at the airport.
About two hours later, after being questioned by employees of the Anti-Terrorism Service, Erol Veliyev was released, Chubarov said.
In a comment to Ukrainskaya Pravda, Chubarov said that the reason for the detention was that Russia had put Erol on the “national wanted list.”
“True, we will still find out what the special services of sovereign Moldova have to do with it,” he added.
It should be noted that in 2018, the Russian FSB accused Erol Veliyev of creating an extremist group in Crimea. Kharkov resident Alexander Steshenko, detained on the occupied peninsula, was tortured and forced to “confess” that Erol Veliyev allegedly asked him to set fire to the house of the Mufti of Crimea, Emirali Ablaev.
Veliyev himself, in a commentary to Crimea.Realii, stated that the only thing he and Steshenko have in common is that they both studied in Kharkov. Dzhemilev’s assistant clarified that he lived in this city for about 9 years. “I have nothing to do with the FSB version. It says that all this happened in January 2018. The last time I was in Crimea was in September 2017,” Veliyev said.
Let us recall that in December last year, in the temporarily occupied Crimea, the FSB of the Russian Federation reported on the exposure of a “deeply hidden network” of agents of the Ukrainian special services. Allegedly, 18 “agents and accomplices of Kyiv” were detained, involved in five acts of sabotage. At the same time, the FSB allegedly prevented the commission of 14 acts of sabotage and terrorism in this way.
