A resident of Bashkiria was summoned for questioning over the case of oppositionist Airat Dilmukhametov

Sterlitamak resident Dinar Garipov was summoned for questioning as a witness in connection with the case of Bashkir oppositionist Airat Dilmukhametov, who is charged with separatism, calls for terrorism and extremism. He himself told OVD-Info about this.

According to Garipov, about a month ago a man came to his home and introduced himself as an FSB officer. He explained that he wanted to talk about Dilmukhametov. Garipov refused to talk without an agenda. Then he left for work in Ufa, and upon his return he learned from neighbors that in his absence FSB officers were looking for him.

“Probably the neighbors gave me my number, they called me and said again that they wanted to talk about Dilmukhametov. I demanded to be summoned as required by law - by summons. I was summoned for July 31, which I only found out yesterday, since I was not at the registration address,” says the man.

The summons states that he is a witness in a certain case, but does not specify which one. Garipov suggests that the interest in him was caused by the fact that he reposted from the oppositionist’s pages and published news about him from third-party resources.

• Bashkir opposition leader Airat Dilmukhametov was detained on March 14 after a search of his house. His colleague, lawyer Vsevolod Lebedinsky, was also searched. In March, Dilmukhametov was arrested in a case of separatism (Part 2 of Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The reason was a video published by the oppositionist on the Internet. Later, another criminal case was opened against him for calls for extremism and terrorism. The occasion was a video in which the oppositionist speaks out in support of the defendants in the Ufa case of Hizb ut-Tahrir, who were sentenced to terms ranging from 5 to 25 years in prison.
• In 2015, Dilmukhametov was sentenced to three years in a maximum security colony on charges of “public justification of terrorism.” Human rights activists considered the case against the oppositionist to be political. Dilmukhametov was released in September 2017.
• In 2018, Dilmukhametov announced his desire to run for the post of “president of the Fourth Bashkir Republic.” He stated that his goal was “that this republic should be the founder of a new, democratic federation of free peoples.”
• Hizb ut-Tahrir is recognized as a terrorist organization in the Russian Federation. 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.