The court decided to transfer a defendant in the new Crimean Hizb ut-Tahrir case to a pre-trial detention center in Rostov-on-Don.

On December 4, a preliminary hearing on the case of Zekirya Muratov, a resident of Crimea, was held at the Southern District Military Court. He is being prosecuted on charges of links to Hizb ut-Tahrir. The court decided to transfer Muratov from the Simferopol detention center to SIZO No. 1 in Rostov-on-Don. This was reported by Crimean Solidarity with reference to lawyers Emine Avamileva and Lilya Gemedzhi.

“The side of the defense filed a motion to dismiss the criminal case and to additionally send it to the prosecutor in order to eliminate the shortcomings contained in the indictment. We referred to the fact that our client is charged with two articles of the criminal code. Moreover, the plot of the accusation, the evidence is absolutely identical, despite the fact that the corpus delicti differs significantly according to the incriminated articles. We also talked about the need to apply the norms of international humanitarian law. The court retired to the deliberation room to consider our petition. But we did not hear any counterarguments on the application of international law,” said Gemedzhi.

In November, the court extended the terms of detention in a pre-trial detention center and under house arrest for seven defendants in new Hizb ut-Tahrir cases. So, the third group disabled person Zekirya Muratov’s arrest was extended for six months, until May 17, 2021.

• On July 7, the security forces conducted mass searches of the Crimean Tatars in the Bakhchisaray, Krasnogvardeisky and Simferopol regions. According to Crimean Solidarity, Emil Ziyadinov, Ismet Ibragimov, Alim Sufyanov, Seyran Khairetdinov, Vadim Bektemirov, Zekirya Muratov, as well as Alexander Sizikov, a disabled person of the first group, were detained during the investigation. They are accused of organizing the activities of a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code). Almost all of them are involved in various criminal cases.
• Hizb ut-Tahrir was recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia. Its participants are accused and sentenced to real terms only on the basis that they met in apartments, read religious literature and recruited new participants. According to the Information and Analytical Center "Sova", the party is recognized as terrorist in Russia unlawfully.