On Thursday, April 9, the so-called Supreme Court of the occupied Crimea rejected the appeal against the decision to extend the preventive measure to the defendants in the so-called second Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir case. Riza Izetov, Yashar Muedinov, Shaban Umerov, Enver Ametov and Vladlen Abdulkadyrov will remain in jail until June 15. But, according to lawyers, the court session was just a formality, since the complaints were examined retroactively. It was reported by the Crimean solidarity public initiative.
It is noted that the lawyers consider this hearing to be formal, since the appeal was reviewed in retrospect, that is, until March 27, 2020, while the defendants had already been under a preventive measure before June 15, 2020.
“Of course, each of us understood that these court sessions are only a formal necessity for the court. Since after the decision was made, after the appeal to the district court’s decision the Supreme Court decided on the first instance to extend the detention beyond the one-year term. Therefore, everyone perfectly understood that this court session was of zero fundamental importance for the possibility of changing the conditions of our clients for the period of a pre-trial detention”,- lawyer Refat Yunus said.
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, the security forces planted themselves. 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 of the searches, 20 people were suspected of involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which is banned in the Russian Federation. On March 28, three more Crimean Tatar activists were detained, in whose dwellings 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 the individuals involved in this so-called case were repeatedly extended the terms of their arrest.