The Kyiv District Court of Simferopol imposed administrative arrests lasting from a day to a week on 22 Crimean Tatars who came to court on August 25 to support defendants in cases of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir. This was reported by the movement «Crimean Solidarity» with reference to the lawyer Emil Kurbedinov.
“Among the detainees were elderly people — from 64 to 71 years old. The Kyiv District Court placed them under administrative arrest for 24 hours, which expired at the time the court decision was announced. <…> Three of them are close relatives of the Muslim Crimean Tatars arrested in Bakhchisarai,” human rights activists specified.
Most of the detainees were issued protocols under the article on organizing a mass simultaneous stay of citizens that caused a violation of public order (Article 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) . Some were also charged with an article on disobedience to the demands of the police (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The arrested were sent to temporary detention centers in Nizhnegorsk, Lenino, Evpatoria and Feodosiya.
Early on the morning of August 24, the security forces came with searches to the residents of Bakhchisaray and the Bakhchisarai district Ruslan Asanov, Ametkhan Umerov, Remzi Nimetulaev, as well as to the houses of Seydamet Mustafaev, Eldar Yakubov and Abdulmejit Seytumerov. All of them were sent to a pre-trial detention center on cases of organizing the activities of a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code) and participating in it (Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code).
The Russian authorities associate the Crimean Tatars with the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which the Supreme Court recognized as terrorist in 2003 and banned. The organization legally operated on the territory of Ukraine, but after the annexation of Crimea, which was opposed by many Crimean Tatars, Russian security forces began to persecute alleged supporters of the party.