Translated material
Crimean Tatar Ruslan Zeytullaev, sentenced to 15 years, was placed in a punishment cell
Crimean Tatar Ruslan Zeytullaev, sentenced to 15 years in prison in the Sevastopol Hizb ut-Tahrir case, was placed in a punishment cell. Lawyer Emil Kurbedinov wrote about this on Facebook.
He said that Zeitullayev was placed in a punishment cell for “allegedly violating the regime.” Kurbedinov has no information about the specific reason for the transfer.
The lawyer also added that he sent a complaint to the Federal Penitentiary Service about Zeitullayev’s detention in Russia. In it, the defense lawyer demanded that the prisoner be transferred to a Crimean colony. Currently, Zeitullayev is in correctional colony No. 2 in Bashkortostan, where he was brought in September 2017.
- Zeytullayev was arrested in January 2015. He and three other residents of Sevastopol were accused of involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which is recognized as terrorist in Russia.
- The investigation considered Zeitullaev to be the leader of the cell, but the North Caucasus District Military Court initially tried him as a participant and sentenced him in September 2016 to seven years in a general regime colony (the other three to five).
- The prosecutor's office appealed Zeitullaev's sentence, and in April 2017, the North Caucasus District Military Court sentenced him as an organizer to 12 years in a maximum security colony.
- The state prosecution considered that this was a lenient punishment, and in July 2017, the Supreme Court, in response to a request from the prosecutor's office to tighten the sentence, added another three years in prison to Zeitullayev.
- According to many human rights activists, the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization was declared terrorist inappropriately. Cases of terrorism have been opened in different regions of the country, while members of the organization’s cells are accused and sentenced to various terms in a maximum security colony only on the basis that they met in apartments, read religious literature and recruited new members.