Overview
- He died on 24 November 2025 in an Istanbul hospital after prolonged illness, according to the Mejlis and Ukraine’s Presidential Representative Office in Crimea.
- Bekirov was a prominent Crimean Tatar activist who was released to Ukraine in September 2019 during the first large-scale prisoner exchange with Russia.
- He was detained by the FSB in December 2018 at the administrative boundary with Crimea on accusations of storing explosives and was later tried in absentia.
- In June 2021, a Russia-controlled court in Simferopol sentenced him in absentia to seven years in prison and a 150,000-ruble fine.
- He was evacuated to Istanbul for treatment in April 2022 through efforts by the Mejlis, Ukraine’s Health Ministry and the Turkish Embassy, and he battled severe conditions including an amputated leg, diabetes and prior heart surgery; in February 2023 the Mejlis said Russian troops occupied his house in Novooleksiivka.