A fourth criminal case was opened against Bashkir oppositionist Airat Dilmukhametov

The FSB department for Bashkiria opened a fourth criminal case against local opposition politician Airat Dilmukhametov. He is charged with an article about calls for separatism (Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by Grani. RU".

According to the resolution to initiate a criminal case, they intend to prosecute Dilmukhametov for his speech in the program “Personally Yours” on the radio station “Echo of Moscow in Ufa” on May 23, 2018. The program discussed the upcoming elections to the Kurultai of the Bashkir region, and the oppositionist shared his intention to create the “Fourth Bashkir Republic.”

According to the FSB, Dilmukhametov “publicly called for actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of Russia,” and the recording of the program itself, which can be found on the Internet, “has signs of publicity and conflict potential.”

• 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) because of 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 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.”
• 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.
• 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