Crimean citizen Ismet Ibragimov was sentenced

Crimean sentenced to 19 years in prison under Art. 278 and 205.5 of the Criminal Code.

On July 8, 2022, the Southern District Military Court sentenced the Crimean Tatar Ismet Ibragimov. The court found him guilty of preparing for a violent seizure of power (Article 278 with the application of Part 1 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code) and of organizing activities in a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code). Ibragimov was sentenced to 19 years in prison with the first five years in prison, and the rest of the term in a strict regime colony. As an additional punishment, he was sentenced to two years of restriction of freedom.

The public prosecutor asked the court to sentence him to 20 years in prison with a fine of 500,000 rubles.

According to investigators, Ibragimov organized the work of the radical Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia. He was detained near Simferopol on July 7, 2020, along with six other Muslims. Three of them have already been convicted , the case of three is still being considered by the court.

We believe that there were no grounds for banning Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terrorist organization, since this party was not seen to be involved in terrorism. Accordingly, we regard it as unlawful persecution of its members under anti-terrorist articles only on the basis of party activities (holding meetings, reading literature, etc.). And the fact that the party preaches the idea of ​​creating a worldwide Islamic caliphate, from our point of view, does not provide grounds for accusing its followers of planning a violent seizure of power in Russia.

Sources

• Case card No. 1-17/2022 (1-62/2021;) // Website of the Southern District Military Court. 2022. July 8.
• "45 years for beliefs". Three Crimean Tatars were sentenced to decades in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case. Message from the Crimean Solidarity project. 2022. July 8.