On 05/25/2016, Ervin Ibragimov was preparing for a trip to Sudak where he intended to attend a trial of four Crimean Tatar activists in the Russian-controlled town "court". They were tried for taking part in a motor rally with national symbols on May 18 – the anniversary of deportation of the Crimean Tatars.

However, the day before, on 05/24/2016, he was kidnapped. Late in the evening, on the bypass road in Bakhchysaray, not far from his house, his car was stopped by people in the uniform of the Russian road police driving a white Ford Transit van. Ervin called his father to find out if he left the documents for his car at home. A few minutes later, Umer Ibragimov called back, but his son’s phone was already off.

A video surveillance camera on one of the shops recorded the kidnapping. The footage shows how Ibragimov tried to escape, but the people shove him into the van. The van then takes off towards the Bakhchysaray water reservoir through the forest.

The day after, the father of Ervin Ibragimov found his son's car with the glove compartment and the doors open, the keys still in the ignition slot. Umer Ibragimov called the police. The so-called "law enforcement officers" examined the car, took fingerprints, drew up a report and drove away.

Long before the kidnapping, Ibragimov would tell Ilmi Umerov, one of the Mejlis leaders, about a white Skoda car with "350" on its license plate (Voronezh Oblast) tailing him. According to Ervin Ibragimov's father, this was not the first attempt at kidnapping. Ervin was coming back home from his friends late in the evening of 05/23/2016. Umer Ibragimov claims there is video footage made on that day showing Ervin being followed − a stranger was watching him from around the corner. The car that was tailing Ervin took off at full speed after him with its headlights off. But the road was potholed, so the kidnappers failed to catch up.

As early as 06/27/2016, activists picketed the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, demanding to start an effective investigation of the Ervin Ibragimov case. This event set in motion the Find and Free campaign of monthly performances to draw attention to the problem of enforced disappearances in the temporarily occupied Crimea.

Participants of the Youth Qurultay of the Crimean Tatars drew attention to the case in their own way. They recorded a video message with words of support to the family of the kidnapped activist.

Having no trust in the Russian investigating authorities, Ervin's mother Lilya Ibragimova wrote a letter to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, asking him to influence the situation with the search for her son.

Numerous inquiries of the family's lawyer Emil Kurbedinov yielded no response from the so-called "investigative bodies" of Crimea. In October 2017, the lawyer filed a request for information in the criminal case of Ervin's kidnapping. They only got the answer in March 2018, following a relevant court ruling.

On 03/26/2018, the so-called Kyivsky District Court of Simferopol considered the complaint of the lawyer about the inaction of the investigating authorities which did not respond to inquiries. All complaints were rejected, but the lawyer found out during the hearing that the case had been suspended on 09/25/2017, and it had been allegedly communicated to Umer Ibragimov, the father of the activist. The latter said that he never received any notifications. Without access to the investigation file, the lawyer and the relatives of Ervin Ibragimov were unable to apply for further investigation.

On 09/13/2018, in his speech at the plenary session of the OSCE human rights conference in Warsaw, Umer Ibragimov expressed confidence that his son had been kidnapped by the state authorities of Russia for his active civic stance and the stand for the rights of the Crimean Tatar People.

In 2020, lawyers of the public organization CrimeaSOS and the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union filed a complaint with the ECHR against the Russian Federation in the case of the enforced disappearance of Ervin Ibragimov.

Under the procedural management of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea  and the city of Sevastopol, a pre-trial investigation is underway in criminal proceedings on the offense under Part 1 Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on the fact of enforced disappearance of a member of the regional Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People E. Ibragimov in the temporarily occupied territory of the Crimean peninsula.