The court extended the arrest of Crimean Tatar activists for four months

The Kiev District Court of Simferopol extended the preventive measure for the defendants in one of the Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir cases, Lenur Seidametov and Timur Yalkabov. This was reported by Crimean Solidarity with reference to lawyers Refat Yunus and Safie Shabanova.

Crimean Tatar activists will remain in pre-trial detention until July 15. The defenders insisted on mitigating the preventive measure due to the fact that the court did not have evidence of the need to leave their clients in the pre-trial detention center. The prosecutor considered that the defendants “represent a threat to public order at large and will try to escape.”

Seidametov is charged with participation in a terrorist organization (Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code), Yalkabov is charged with organizing the activities of a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code). The latter was not in court; he is in the hospital, where he is undergoing a forensic psychiatric examination. Previously, Yalkabov was transferred to a special unit in a pre-trial detention center, where his asthma worsened.

Lawyer Safiye Shabanova filed an appeal against the previous decision to extend the preventive measure. The complaint has not yet been considered.

On April 13, the Court in Simferopol also extended until July 15 the terms of detention in the pre-trial detention center for three more defendants in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case - Oleg Fedorov, Ernest Ibragimov and Azamat Eyupov. “Crimean Solidarity” writes about this.

Previously, Fedorov was sent for a compulsory forensic psychiatric examination. The case of Fedorov and Ibragimov was combined with the case of the “second Bakhchisaray group of Hizb ut-Tahrir.” The three defendants were detained on the same day as Seidametov and Yalkabov.

On April 30, the Supreme Court of Crimea upheld the extension of Azamat Eyupov’s arrest, Crimea Solidarity reports .

• Lenur Seidametov and Timur Yalkabov were arrested on February 17, 2021. This happened after mass searches took place in Crimea in the morning of the same day. At least seven people, including Lenur Seidametov and Timur Yalkabov, became defendants in criminal cases of organizing the activities of a terrorist organization and participating in it (Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code).
• In March, Lenur Seidametov was sent for a compulsory forensic psychiatric examination. The activist spent 21 days in the hospital.
• The Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir is recognized as a terrorist organization in the Russian Federation. In different regions of Russia, as well as in Crimea, cases are being brought against alleged party members for the activities of a terrorist organization. Defendants are sentenced to varying terms solely on the basis that they held meetings and read religious literature. At the same time, the legislation of Ukraine allows the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir. According to a number of experts, Hizb ut-Tahrir was unlawfully recognized as a terrorist organization, since its participants in Russia never advocated violence or prepared terrorist acts.