A defendant in the second Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir case was transported to Ulyanovsk

Raim Aivazov, a defendant in the second Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir case, was transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 1 in Ulyanovsk. Crimean Solidarity reports this with reference to the man’s lawyer, Maria Eismont.

The prisoner said that he was first transferred to Volgograd, after which he spent a day in Saratov, and only then he ended up in Ulyanovsk for an indefinite period.

“The mood is fine, if we don’t take into account where we are going to serve a sentence for an uncommitted crime, then everything is fine,” Aivazov commented.

In March 2022, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don found Simferopol activist Raim Aivazov and four other Crimean Tatars guilty of attempting to seize power (Article 278 of the Criminal Code using Part 1 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code). Farkhod Bazarov was also found guilty of participating in the activities of a terrorist organization (Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code), and the other four were found guilty of organizing such activities (Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code). On March 29, the Military Court of Appeal in Vlasikha near Moscow confirmed the verdicts.

Aivazov was sentenced to 17 years, with the first 5 years to be served in prison and restricted freedom for a year and a half.

The court sentenced human rights activist Riza Izetov and Crimean Solidarity and Grani.ru correspondent Remzi Bekirov to 19 years in prison, with the first 5 years to be served in prison and freedom restricted for a year and a half. The court sentenced Shaban Umerov to 18 years of imprisonment, with the first 5 years to be served in prison, with a restriction of freedom for a year and a half, and Farkhod Bazarov - 15 years, with the first 4 years and 10 months to be served in prison, and with a restriction of freedom for a period of one year.

The prosecutor's office requested sentences from 16 to 18.5 years in a maximum security colony for the defendants in the case.

• In March 2019, massive searches took place in villages in the suburbs of Simferopol, where Crimean Tatars predominantly live. In addition, FSB officers detained several people in Rostov-on-Don. In total, 29 Crimean Tatars are involved in the second Simferopol case. Four are wanted, the rest are in custody. Before the case was brought to court, the accused were divided into groups of five, each of which was tried in a separate court hearing.
• The publication Crimea.Realii published a text about the Simferopol group in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case. All defendants in the case who are in custody, the Memorial project. Support for political prisoners" recognized as political prisoners. In 2022 and early 2023, all of them were sentenced to terms of 12 to 19 years in a maximum security colony. One of the convicts, Dzhemil Gafarov, died in custody in February 2023.
• 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 Information and Analytical Center “Sova” and the project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial” , the party is illegally recognized as terrorist in Russia.