Cases of Crimean Tatars: lawyer tells about role of ‘agents of state’ in Russian court

Thirteen criminal cases against Crimean Tatars are currently pending before the Southern Military District Court of Rostov-on-Don, Russia.

“Thirteen criminal cases against Crimean Tatars are currently pending before the Southern Military District Court. This is only the first instance. Three more criminal cases are being considered by a court of appeal,” the Crimean Solidarity informs with reference to lawyer Edem Semedliayev, Ukrinform reports.

According to him, a large group of people is defendants in the cases. For example, 25 people are defendants in the second Simferopol “Hizb ut-Tahrir case”, so the investigation divided them in groups of five.

According to the lawyer, three hidden witnesses were interrogated within the case of group of his client. As noted, these people are not eyewitnesses to the events, but “agents of the state.”

“Once again, we make certain that these are the agents of the state who were simply classified by the investigation to prevent us from finding out their personal data. They say only what is written in the protocol, they say what they were told to say, and their answers to the questions put by lawyers are either ‘I don’t remember’ or some other memorized phrases,” the lawyer noted.

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