The court extended the arrest of a defendant in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case, who was previously acquitted in this case

The Southern District Military Court extended the arrest of Ernes Ametov, a defendant in the case of the second Bakhchisarai group of Hizb ut-Tahrir, for another 3 months. Crimean Solidarity reports this.

In 2020, Ametov was acquitted in the case of participation in the activities of a terrorist organization (Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code) and preparation for a violent seizure of power (Article 278 of the Criminal Code with the note of Part 1 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code).

The court considered that sufficient evidence of Ametov’s guilt was not provided in the case materials. A man arrested in 2017 was released in the courtroom. In March, the case was sent for a new trial, and in May Ametovwas arrested again.

In total, eight people are involved in the second Bakhchisarai Hizb ut-Tahrir case; the other seven defendants in the case were sentenced to terms ranging from 13 to 19 years in a maximum security colony.

• The Islamist party 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 SOVA information and analytical center, the party was unlawfully recognized as terrorist in Russia.
• According to Memorial Human Rights Center, as of March 2022, at least 340 people are being persecuted in connection with their involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami. Of these, at least 231 people were convicted, and 176 of them were sentenced to terms of more than ten years in prison. Most of the defendants - 94 people - are from Crimea and Sevastopol. Tatarstan is in second place: at least 81 people from this region are being persecuted in connection with their involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir. In third place is Bashkiria, with 53 defendants.