Arrest of 21 Crimean Tatars extended

"On March 25, 2020, the Kyivsky District Court of Simferopol considered the motion of the investigator to extend the pre-trial restriction in the form of the arrest of the defendants of so-called Bilohirsk group in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case Riza Omerov, Enver Omerov and Ayder Dzhapparov… Judge Pronin ruled to extend the arrest of these defendants until May 5, 2020," NGO "Crimean Solidarity" informs.

On March 24, the ‘Supreme Court’ of Crimea extended the arrest of ten defendants of second Simferopol group in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case – Rustem Sheikhaliyev, Riza Izetov, Servet Gaziyev, Yashar Muyedinov, Shaban Umerov, Medzhyt Abdurakhmanov, Enver Ametov, Vladlen Abdulkadyrov, Rayim Ayvazov, Remzi Bekirov – until June 15.

As the Crimean Solidarity informs, the Rostov regional court extended the arrest of eight defendants of the second Simferopol group in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case – Ruslan Suleymanov, Asan Yanykov, Seyran Murtaza, Izzet Abdulayev, Erfan Osmanov, Seytvel Seytabdiyev, Alim Arimov, Yakim Bekirov – until June 14.

All court hearings were held behind closed doors because of coronavirus quarantine measures which had been introduced in the courts by a relevant ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation since March 18, 2020.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a pan-Islamist organization which is described in the Chatham House study Transnational Islam in Russia and Crimea as tending “to avoid violent means and instead may focus on social work, education and dialogue initiatives”. The organization is banned in Russia.

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