The Crimean court upheld the fine for holding “uncoordinated prayers”

The Supreme Court of Crimea dismissed an appeal against a fine imposed on Imam Dilyaver Khalilov under the article on organizing an uncoordinated action (part 2 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). This was reported by Crimean Solidarity with reference to lawyer Emil Kurbedinov.

The lawyer noticed that the judge did not retire to the deliberation room to make a decision.

“Why did we meet then, if the decision was already ready? This once again proves the direction in which the authorities are going today, persecuting the imams. Those imams who do not want to comply with any unreasonable demands of the authorities are persecuted through such court cases,” the lawyer comments.

In April, the district court fined Imam Dilyaver Khalilov 30,000 rubles for conducting the traditional Friday collective prayer on March 20, 2020.

• According to the prosecutor's office, the building of the mosque where the prayer took place is officially a sports complex, and for holding events on its territory, coordination with the village council of the Sovietsky district of Crimea is required.
• “We provided documents establishing the ownership of the local religious community on the building of the mosque from 2004, confirmed in 2010. They were issued by the municipal authorities of Ukraine and confirm that the building was handed over to the community headed by the imam. But we were told in response that Ukrainian-style documents would not be taken into account. That is, Russia does not recognize the documents that the imam and the community have, although even under Russian law, title documents must be accepted indefinitely, ” lawyer Emil Kuberdinov told Grati.