Two defendants of first Bakhchysarai “Hizb ut-Tahrir case”, Remzi Memetov and Enver Mamutov, were transported from the detention center №1 in Rostov-on-Don to the high-security prison №11 in Stavropol Krai, Russia. This is reported by their attorneys, Sergei Legostov and Emil Kurbedinov, wrote «Crimean Solidarity» initiative.
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According to Legostov, political prisoners remained in Pyatigorsk for ten days after they left Rostov.
«We received information that they were sent to high-security prison №11 in Stavropol Krai to serve sentence», noted Sergei Legostov. He added that employees of Ukrainian consulate in Russia will be able to visit convicts upon the confirmation of this information.
Emil Kurbedinov noted that Russian side keeps all the transportations in secret.
«All their movements are kept in secret because Russian security system labeled them “terrorists”, and from the very beginning, from the very moment of search, arrest, detention, military courts and so on, this system treats them as “terrorists”. We are tracking where they are transported and will try to visit them as soon as possible when they arrive at the destination point”, said lawyer.
Previously, on 12 May 2016, Russian security forces held mass searches in the households of indigenous Crimean Tatar people. As a result, Zevri Abseitov, Remzi Memetov, Rustem Abiltarov, and Enver Mamutov were detained. They were accused of participation in “Hizb ut-Tahrir” organization that is illegal in Russia. All of them were charged with the article 205.5 (“organization of terrorist activity”), and later with article 278 of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation (“violent seizure and retention of power”).
Following the arrest, men were put into the detention facility in Simferopol, where they spent two years on trump-up charges. After two years, the “case” was transferred to the North-Caucasian military district court. On 22 May 2018, the Crimean Tatars were unlawfully transported from the detention facility in Simferopol to Rostov-on-Don.
On 24 December 2018, North-Caucasian military district court in Rostov-on-Don passed a sentence upon the defendants of the first Bakhchysarai “Hizb ut-Tahrir case”. Enver Mamutov was sentenced to seventeen years in a high-security prison and one year and six months of supervised release. Zevri Abseitov, Remzi Memetov, and Rustem Abiltarov were sentenced to nine years in a high-security prison and one year of supervised release.
In their final statements, the defendants stressed their innocence, and called the case “politically motivated”.