Server Mustafayev is a Tatar human rights defender and coordinator of Crimean Solidarity, a civil society initiative founded after the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the repression of dissenting voices. The group monitors and documents human rights violations, provides legal aid, monitors trials and provides support - including financial - to the families of those detained. Crimean Solidarity focuses mainly on providing support to the Crimean Tatar community, which has been particularly targeted by the Russian authorities.

Server Mustafayev is married with four children.

Mustafayev was born in Uzbekistan. His family later returned to Crimea. Server finished school in Bakhchisarai and then enrolled in the Bakhchisarai Construction College at the National Agrarian University. He studied at Kyiv National University, specializing in heat and gas supply and ventilation. Afterward, he worked as a manager in communication shops.

In 2014 he started to manage a chain of bakeries. He was also active in the community in Bakhchisarai, organizing children’s parties and social events and helping low-income families. During the same year, Mustafayev began to actively help families of political prisoners and became one of the coordinators of the civil rights organization Crimean Solidarity.

In 2018, authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea, Ukraine, conducted a search in the house of Server Mustafayev in Bakhchisarai and took him to Simferopol. Subsequently, the occupation authorities illegally sentenced him to 14 years in prison for participating in the “activities of a terrorist organization” and for “preparing for the violent seizure of power.” The authorities accused him of being a member of the organization Hizb ut-Tahrir, banned in Russia, and claimed to have audio recordings of him and others discussing religion and politics and attending various meetings, including a lecture at a mosque in December 2016.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is an Islamic organisation that is permitted in Ukraine and most European and world states, but banned in Russia. It is a peaceful religious movement that Russian law wrongly accuses of extremist and terrorist intentions. Since 2014, 101 people in occupied Crimea have been accused of alleged participation in this organisation. Most of them are Crimean Tatar activists protesting against the occupation of Crimea.

Despite the harsh conditions of his imprisonment, Server remains an activist and is involved in human rights activities. He helps his cellmate getting his child back, who was taken away from him when he was arrested.