On Friday, 9 August, Kyiv district “court” in Simferopol continued the remand detention of three defendants of the second Simferopol “Hizb-ut-Tahrir case”. Crimean Solidarity informs that Akim Bekirov, Seitveli Seitabdiev, and Asan Yanikov will remain in detention until 15 November 2019.
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The defendant team petitioned to substitute the pre-trial detention with the house arrest but the “court” denied the motion arguing that the accused are Ukrainian citizens and could potentially flee from “punishment”.
On March 27, Russian police forces conducted twenty-six mass searches in the Crimean Tatar houses in the occupied Crimea. They confiscated some literature that, according to the Crimean Solidarity, was placed there by the police itself. Besides books and leaflets, they also confiscated cell phones, tablets, laptops, and passports. The policemen were rude, did not bother to take their shoes off when entering the house and used physical force. Lawyers arriving at the places of searches were not allowed to talk to their clients. As a result, twenty people were charged with links to the illegal in Russia organization “Hizb ut-Tahrir”. On March 28, after another police raid, three more Crimean Tatar activists have been arrested. The whereabouts of another Crimean Tatar, Edem Yayachikov, is currently unknown. The same day, on March 27-28, a Russian court in Crimea sentenced all twenty-three activists to fifteen days in jail. All of them are accused of being linked to the “Hizb ut-Tahrir”. Later, Human Rights Commissioner, Lyudmila Denisova reported that all detainees were relocated to five different detention centers in Rostov region. On May 13 and 14, courts in Rostov region and occupied Crimea extended the detention period of all twenty-four Crimean Tatars until August 15. The same day, Kyiv “Court” in Simferopol extended the detention period to another Crimean Tatar activist, Raim Aivazov until August 15, who was arrested in April at the territorial administrative border, Kalanchak. He was included in the criminal case of the group of Crimean Tatars arrested on March 27, 2019.