Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry urges to step up pressure on Russia over sentence in Hizb ut-Tahrir case

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has voiced a protest over the sentence of Russian court in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine voices a resolute protest over an unjustified judgment delivered by the North Caucasus Military District Court of the Russian Federation to sentence Ukrainian citizens Enver Mamutov to 17 years in prison, Rustem Abiltarov, Remzi Memetov and Zevri Abseitov - to 9 years in prison on frankly trumped-up charges of terrorist activities," the Foreign Ministry press service reports.

As noted, the Russian anti-terrorism legislation is widely used by the Russian occupation administration to cover political repressions against representatives of the Crimean Tatar people. "The international community condemned this unacceptable practice in the UNGA resolution on the situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, which was adopted on December 22," the press service says.

The Foreign Ministry will continue to use all possible political and diplomatic levers to free Ukrainian citizens and calls on the international community to step up pressure on the aggressor state to make Russia stop violating human rights in the temporarily occupied Crimea and free the illegally detained Ukrainian citizens. "The Russian Federation must comply fully with the Crimean resolutions of the UN General Assembly of December 19, 2016, December 19, 2017 and December 22, 2018, as well as the ruling of the International Court of Justice on measures within the framework of the lawsuit of Ukraine against the Russian Federation on the application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination," the statement reads.

As reported, on December 24, the North Caucasus Military District Court in Russian city of Rostov-on-Don delivered sentences to the defendants in the first Bakhchisarai case "Hizb ut-Tahrir."

Enver Mamutov was sentenced to 17 years in a maximum security penal colony. Remzi Memetov, Ruslan Abiltarov and Zevri Abseitov were sentenced to 9 years in a maximum security penal colony.