Moscow Cassation Court rejects Crimean journalist and activist Lutfiye Zudiyeva’s appeal against her foreign agent status; her attorney denied courtroom access

The Second General Jurisdiction Court of Cassation in Moscow has dismissed an appeal filed by Lutfiye Zudiyeva, a human rights activist from Crimea and a journalist with Graty. Zudiyeva made a third-instance appeal regarding her listing as a “foreign agent” by the Russian government. 

Her attorney was denied access to the courtroom: arriving to the court at the established time, the journalist’s representative discovered that the hearing had taken place earlier than planned, and the ruling “remained unchanged.” 

The hearing took place on March 19, but the text of the ruling was delivered to Zudiyeva and her defence quite recently; they had not received any ruling earlier. 

The court rejected the journalist’s procedural request to participate in video conference mode, arguing that she had not presented any objective reasons for not being able to travel from the occupied Crimea to the Russian capital. At the same time, the court noted that the defendant’s presence, according to the Russian law, was not obligatory.    

The details of the case follow.

Court Behind Closed Doors

The journalist’s appeal was reviewied by a panel of Russian judges presided over by Elena Repina, also including Yuriy Denisov and Elena Korpachova. 

The defendant told Graty that she had been informed of the case review date and time in a letter. Yet, her request to take part in the hearing in video conference mode in the premises of the Dzhankoi District Court of Crimea was rejected by judge Denisov, despite that Zudieva had been allowed such participation format during a previous appeal. 

“Then we decided that my defender would be present at the hearing. But ultimately she wasn’t allowed in either. At 10:30, she was near the courtroom — the door was closed. She knocked, but nobody opened. At 10:35, a court clerk came out and said: ‘The hearing has already taken place,’ then they immediately invited the next person to the hearing that was supposed to start at 10:40. In other words, the case must have been reviewed earlier than scheduled,” the journalist noted.   

Moreover, in the court’s ruling, the absence of the defendant and her representative was framed as their “failure to appear.”    

“If we set emotions aside and look into the substance of the case, the refusal to hold a video conference is just a formality that complies with [Russian] law: courts tend to interpret ‘objective reasons’ quite narrowly. A far more serious issue is the representative’s admission and the timing of the hearing. The hearing had taken place earlier than scheduled while neither the party, nor her defence counsel were granted access. This constitutes a violation of the adversarial principle and the right to participate in the process,” Zudiyeva claims.

Zudiyeva has not yet received the text of the ruling, while her attorney managed to pick it up only at her second attempt. According to Zudiyeva, on April 3, her case file was marked as being processed by the court office. This would indicate that the ruling was supposed to have reached Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow, where the case had been heard at first instance. However, upon arriving at the court house, Zudiyeva’s attorney was told by the staff that, despite the change in status, the documents had not yet been sent to them. The text of the ruling (Graty has obtained a copy of it) was made available to them only weeks later.

Ruling Unchanged            

The judges have upheld the ruling of the lower court, concurring with all the arguments listed therein: the alleged evidence of Lutfiye Zudiyeva’s being under foreign influence is the publication of her articles by the Ukrainian independent media Graty, her commentary to the media and international organizations, as well as her alleged membership in an international organization supporting human rights activists, the Front Line Defenders foundation.

The latter claim has nothing to do with reality: the foundation did, indeed, publish petitions acknowledging Zudiyeva’s activism and journalism in Crimea as peaceful and legitimate human rights work. Yet, she has never been listed as their staff employee.

Russian Court rejects Lutfiye Zudieva’s appeal against the refusal to remove her from the «foreign agents» list

The court has also reaffirmed the claims of its previous instances, which alleged that Zudiyeva had received funds from foreign sources based on her husband transferring money for household expenses from his account to hers. Her husband’s business activity in Crimea entails selling agricultural goods, and, as established by the FSB, he allegedly received funds from three foreigners between February and August 2024. They were citizens of Germany, Ukraine and Vietnam. No other indications of “foreign funding” are mentioned in the case of Lutfiye Zudiyeva.

During the appeal proceedings, the journalist emphasized that the first-instance ruling was based on false claims (namely, her membership in the Front Line Defenders) and misinterpretation of facts, such as the designation of independent journalistic and human rights activities as “political,” as well as treating the fact that her husband had sold goods to people with dual citizenship as “receiving funds from foreign sources.” There is no way he could have known about their citizenship, as he has no right to check his clients’ ID. Back then, the court overlooked her arguments; this time, it has not even allowed her to present them at the hearing. 

Zudiyeva plans to appeal the ruling before the Supreme Court of Russia.

“Essentially, we have been through three judicial instances at this point, and we are currently preparing our final appeal in Russia — to the Supreme Court. The deadline for submission is June 19, that is, within six months since the ruling of the lower court. In the appeal, we plan to highlight the significant procedural violations committed during the case hearing, as well as the inconsistency of the ruling itself,” she says.

Appeal of the “Foreign Agent” Status Has Lasted for Almost a Year

On May 16, 2025, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated Lutfiye Zudiyeva as a “foreign agent,” deeming her journalistic and human rights activities “political.” The Ministry of Justice based its decision on the “information” that they received in 2024 and 2025 from Roskomnadzor and the Crimean branches of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. 

Among other things, they mention seven articles by Zudiyeva published by Graty: on cases involving Crimean Muslims tried for alleged involvement with the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir (designated as a terrorist organisation in Russia, but freely operating in Ukraine and most European countries); torture and the illegal transfer of the convicted political prisoners outside the peninsula; meeting the political prisoners released after serving their sentences; the searches of Crimean Tatars’ houses and their abduction from their homes; and the forced psychiatric treatment of certain individuals by court order instead of imprisonment. They also mention a report on the death of Crimean resident Bronislav Danylovych, who died while his daughter, human rights advocate and civic journalist Iryna Danylovych, is serving her prison sentence in the Stavropol Region of Russia.  

Searches at the homes of Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea, Bakhchysarai, September 2023. Photo: Crimean Solidarity

There are additional references to interviews that the human rights activist gave to international media and media organizations, such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ), regarding the situation of persecution and politically motivated criminal cases in Crimea.

Lutfiye Zudiyeva herself rejects the claim that she acted in the interest of any state and disagrees with the characterization of her journalistic activities as “political.” She points out that her activity is about the fundamental right to freedom of thought and expression, which is guaranteed both by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 19) and the Russian Constitution (Article 29).

The journalist initially filed a complaint against the decision of the Russian Ministry of Justice with the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow, and when the court dismissed her complaint on August 11, 2025, she appealed the decision. On December 19, 2025, the Moscow District Court dismissed Lutfiye Zudiyeva’s appeal, upholding the decision of the lower court.

Since 2019, the Russian Federation has been assigning the “foreign agent” status to individuals who collaborate with media outlets that are also designated as “foreign agents,” or receive funding from abroad; since 2022, to those who are considered to be under “foreign influence.”

A “foreign agent” is barred from holding public office, running for election, carrying out educational activities among minors, or working in state educational institutions. To that, “foreign agents” are denied access to state financial support and cannot be subjected to taxes under a simplified taxation system.

Translated by Yustyna Kravchuk, edited by Anna Kravets