The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced children's coach and Crimean Tatar activist Emil Ziyadinov to 17 years in prison in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case. Interfax was informed about this by the press service of the court.
He will serve the first four years of his sentence in prison, and the rest in a strict regime colony.
Ziyadinov was found guilty of organizing a branch of a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code) and preparing for a violent seizure of power (Part 1 of Article 30, Article 278 of the Criminal Code).
According to investigators, Ziyadinov created a Hizb ut-Tahrir cell in November 2019, «carried out propaganda work among the local population» and involved people «in covert activities to create favorable conditions for the forcible seizure of power.»
Ziyadinov was detained in the Oktyabrskoye village in the central part of Crimea on July 7, 2020. That day, after the searches, FSB officers detained five more residents of the peninsula.
The human rights organization «Crimean Solidarity» notes that Ziyadinov had previously gone on a picket against the persecution of Crimean Tatars, went to courts and made parcels to them. jpg» class=»mz-publish-context-cite__image» alt=»1″ />Kitchen terrorism. Who and for what is being tried in Crimea in the case of Hizb ut-Tahrir
The secret witness Tatarov called Ziyadinov a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, who in court could not tell how he knew the accused. At the same time, another witness, Rae Shadmanova, the former wife of the owner of the house where, according to the investigation, Hizb ut-Tahrir meetings were held, fainted several times in court during interrogation and did not answer questions. During the investigation, she testified in the FSB building.
The Supreme Court of Russia in 2003 recognized the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir as terrorist and banned it. The organization legally operated on the territory of Ukraine, but after the annexation of Crimea, Russian security forces began to persecute alleged supporters of the party.