A defendant in the second Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir case was transferred to the Chelyabinsk region

Shaban Umerov, a defendant in the second Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir case, sentenced to 18 years, was transferred from the Novocherkassk pre-trial detention center to the prison in the city of Verkhneuralsk, Chelyabinsk region. Crimean Solidarity reports this with reference to the activist’s wife, Zarema Umerova.

The woman received a letter from her husband via the Zonatelecom prison communications system. In it, he compared his stage with the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people and said that another political prisoner from Crimea, journalist Remzi Bekirov, was traveling with him all the way to Chelyabinsk, but then they were separated.

In March 2022, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don found Bekirov, Umerov, as well as Riza Izetov, Raim Aivazov and Farkhod Bazarov guilty of attempting to seize power (Article 278 of the Criminal Code using Part 1 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code). In addition, Bazarov was 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).

The activists received sentences ranging from 15 to 19 years. Aivazov was transported to Ulyanovsk, and Izetov to Vladimir .

• 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.