Two defendants in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case in Tatarstan were sentenced to 17 and 11 years in prison

The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg sentenced Zafar Yakubov and Danil Bagautdinov, defendants in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case in Tatarstan. This was reported by the “Parental Solidarity” telegram channel.

Yakubov was sentenced to 17 years in a maximum security colony under articles on directing the activities of a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code) and recruitment into a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code). Bagautdinov was sentenced to 11 years of strict regime under the article on participation in a terrorist organization (Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code).

The prosecutor requested 17 years of strict regime for Yakubov and 16 for Bagautdinov.

• The convicts were detained on April 24, 2018. The FSB press service reported that the special services found “a large amount of prohibited literature” and “reports on recruitment work with newly involved adherents,” and also seized documentary materials “confirming the suspects’ carrying out anti-constitutional propaganda work among the Muslims of the republic.” It was also noted that among the detainees there are leaders of the Kazan cell of the organization.
• The organization Hizb ut-Tahrir was declared terrorist by a decision of the Supreme Court. However, a number of experts from human rights organizations, including the SOVA Center, believe that there is no reason for this - members of Hizb ut-Tahrir were not seen to be involved in committing or preparing terrorist attacks. Subdivisions of the party legally operate in many countries of the world, although they are labeled by local authorities as Muslim organizations of a “fundamentalist” persuasion.