Umar Hitinav

His first experience with human rights work occurred in 2010-2011, when he served as a public defender in the case of his older brother, who was accused of murdering Abashilov, director of the Dagestan State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (GTRK Dagestan) television channel. In 2013, he joined the public organization “Union of the Just,” which was subsequently dismantled, and its leadership was imprisoned. From 2014 to 2016, he founded the Public Movement “For Muslim Rights,” which operated primarily in Moscow and Dagestan. Subsequently, all of the movement’s founders were forced to leave Russia. In June 2016, he left Russia for Ukraine. In 2017, he joined the “Crimean Human Rights Movement” in Ukraine. In February 2022, when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, he fled to Poland. Umar is currently in Poland as a refugee.