The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has expressed a strong protest in connection with the verdicts of the defendants in the so-called second Bakhchisaray Hizb ut-Tahrir case. The department emphasized that the Russian Federation is actively using its anti-terrorist legislation to mask systemic political repression and religious discrimination in the occupied Crimea.
The terrible terms of imprisonment on openly fabricated charges of terrorist activity is a vivid evidence of how the occupying state is actively using its anti-terrorism legislation to mask systemic political repression and religious discrimination against representatives of the Crimean Tatar people in order to intimidate and suppress any disloyal civil movements and initiatives in the temporarily occupied Crimea peninsula”,- the message said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands from the Russian Federation to cancel the court decision and immediately release all the citizens of Ukraine illegally detained by it. And the international community asks to respond to such a shameful decision of the occupying state and to condemn the use of the Russian Federation of illegal practice of prosecuting dissent.
We remind that on October 11, 2017, in the city of Bakhchisaray, the invaders carried out mass searches in 6 dwellings of Crimean Tatars – Marlen Asanov, Seiran Saliiev, Timur Ibrahimov, Memet Belyalov, Ernes Ametov, Server Zakiryaev. Everyone was detained. They were charged under Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Participation in the activities of an organization which, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, is recognized as terrorist”.
On May 21, 2018, Russian security forces raided the dwellings of activists of the Crimean Solidarity public association in the occupied Crimea, as a result of which Server Mustafayev and Edem Smailov were detained. They were also accused of their membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation, which is prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation.
In February 2019, a criminal case was opened against eight individuals involved in the so-called second Bakhchisaray Hizb ut-Tahrir case – Marlen Asanov, Seiran Saliiev, Timur Ibrahimov, Memet Belyalov, Ernest Ametov, Server Zakiryaev, Server Mustafayev and Edem Smailov (“Violent seizure of power or violent retention of power”).
On March 5, it became known that the two defendants in the so-called second Bakhchysaray Hizb ut-Tahrir case – Timur Ibrahimov and Memet Belyalov – had their charge tightened from part two of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code (“participation in the activities of a terrorist organization”) to the part one (“organization of the activities of a terrorist organization”).
On September 16, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don announced the verdict to the defendants in the second so-called Bakhchisaray Hizb ut-Tahrir case. Marlen Asanov was sentenced to 19 years in a strict regime colony, Memet Belyalov – to 18, Timur Ibrahimov – to 17, Seyran Saliiev – to 16, Server Mustafayev – to 14, Server Zakiryaev and Edem Smailov – to 13. Ernest Ametov was found innocent and released in the courtroom.