The family of the figurant involved in the so-called second Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir case, Erfan Osmanov, has been denied official visits all the time, without explaining the reason. This was reported to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center by his wife Akime, adding that they can only see each other at “court hearings”, but “it mostly depends on the mood of the judge.”
“There’s simply no meeting. Every month I write applications for visits, but all to no avail. The only way to see each other is to go to the courts, and that depends on the judge’s mood as if “His Honour allows.” Even we, relatives, don’t have any rights, they treat us the same way with particular severity and hostility, preventing us from seeing and hearing all these false and unfair accusations. Everything is decided behind closed doors”,- said the wife.
The wife noted that on March 11, after the so-called trial, she and her son managed to see Erfan for 5-10 minutes, as they were invited to hear the verdict. During this time, they managed to talk about the conditions of detention and his health conditions.
“He said that he has a chill very often, his blood pressure is unstable, teeth were damaged due to inferior quality of the water. He had been bothered by periodontal disease already, and now it has gotten worse. They don’t provide medical help even when he’s sick, no way the treatment is carried out, even basic remedies are not available in pre-trial detention centers”,- she added.
The conditions of detention are very poor, nothing has changed: |I can’t even imagine how you can be kept in such conditions. And all this happens in the modern era.”
“During the year Erfan was in custody, not a single investigation was carried out, zero action. He actually sits all this time just like that, and is serving time for those charges that have not yet been invented”,- Akime emphasized.
We remind that on March 27, 2019, Russian security forces in the occupied Crimea carried out mass searches in 26 Crimean Tatars' dwellings. Literature was seized from some activists, which, according to Crimean Solidarity, was planted by the security forces. In addition to books and brochures, people were confiscated phones, tablets, laptops, passports. The servicemen behaved rudely. It is reported that they used physical force against detainees and entered the houses in shoes. Lawyers who arrived at the site of the searches were not allowed to contact the detainees. According to the results, 20 people were suspected of involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which was banned in the Russian Federation. On March 28, three more Crimean Tatar activists were detained, in whose homes searches were carried out in their absence. On March 27-28, the occupation court arrested all 23 detainees after the searches. They chose a preventive measure in the form of detention. Subsequently, all persons involved in this so-called case were repeatedly extended the terms of their arrest.