The so-called Hizb ut-Tahrir case defendant Rustem Seytkhalilov placed in a psychiatric hospital

The defendant in the so-called Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir case Rustem Seytkhalilov was placed in a psychiatric hospital. The Crimean Tatar Resource Center was informed about this by his wife Elzara, emphasizing that Rustem complained about severe headaches.

According to Elzara, last Wednesday Rustem was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, but the details of the aforementioned are unknown to her.

“His health condition is satisfactory. At one time he had a stomach ache due to terrible quality of bread in the Simferopol pre-trial detention center. But now everything is mostly fine with him. The only thing is that he is very often worried about severe headaches. Almost every other day, if not every single one. But no one in the pre-trial detention center provided him with necessary medical care. Rustem doesn’t even apply for it, since it’s useless”,- the spouse claimed.

We remind that on the 27^th of March, Russian security forces in occupied Crimea carried out mass searches in dwellings of 26 Crimean Tatars. Literature was seized from some activists, which, according to Crimean Solidarity, was planted by the security forces themselves. In addition to books and brochures, people were confiscated phones, tablets, laptops and passports. Security officials behaved in a rude manner. It is reported that they resorted to physical force and entered the dwellings in shoes. Lawyers who arrived at the site of the searches were not allowed to see the detained. According to the results of these searches, 20 people were suspected of their membership in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which is banned in the Russian Federation. On the 28^th of  March, three more Crimean Tatar activists were detained, in whose dwellings searches were carried out in their absence. The whereabouts of yet another Crimean Tatar – Edem Yayachikov – remains unknown. On the 27^th-28^th of March, the so-called court arrested all 23 detainees after the searches of Crimean Tatar activists. A preventive measure in the form of detention was chosen until the 15^th of May. Everyone is accused of membership in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization banned in the Russian Federation. Later, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Liudmyla Denisova, reported that the detainees were assigned to five pre-trial detention centers in the Rostov Region. On the 13^th-14^th, the courts in the Rostov Region and occupied Crimea extended the period of arrest for all 24 detained Crimean Tatars until  the 15^th of August 15. Then, the so-called Kyiv District Court of Simferopol extended the preventive measure in the form of detention until the 15^th of August  to Crimean Tatar activist Raim Aivazov, who was detained in April at the Kalanchak checkpoint. He was included in the criminal case of 23 Crimean Tatars detained on the 27^th of March 2019. After that, the period of detention of the political prisoners was repeatedly extended.