Imam convicted of justifying terrorism was hospitalized in a hospital at a pre-trial detention center

The imam of the Moscow Yardyam mosque, Makhmud Velitov, convicted in the case of publicly justifying terrorism, was hospitalized in a hospital at a pre-trial detention center. TASS reported this with reference to the imam’s lawyer Dagir Khasavov.

writes “My client, Sheikh Makhmud Velitov, became ill. After a medical examination, he was urgently hospitalized in the internal hospital of the pre-trial detention center with heart pain. His leg is numb,” the agency quotes the lawyer as saying.

According to Khasavov, his client is a disabled person of the second group; he suffered a stroke and heart attack. The lawyer also noted that Velitov’s hospitalization “gives grounds for changing the preventive measure before the trial in the Supreme Court to a more lenient one.”

On April 28, the court sentenced Velitov to three years in a general regime colony, finding him guilty of justifying terrorism (Part 1 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code): allegedly on September 23, 2013, Velitov publicly gave a speech in a mosque justifying the activities of activist Abdulla Gappaev, who was killed in Kizlyar. Gappaev was suspected of involvement in the activities of Hizb, an organization that is recognized as terrorist on the territory of the Russian Federation and is banned, as human rights activists believe, without any basis.

sentenced ut-Tahrir The imam's defense argued that he did not say anything about this organization, as well as Gappaev's membership in it, since he did not have such information. According to the defense, Velitov only performed a religious ceremony in relation to the deceased Muslim.