The Southern Military District Court sentenced a 47-year-old Crimean to 20 years in prison in the case of organizing the activities of the local branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Interfax reports this with reference to the press service of the FSB department for Crimea and Sevastopol.
The resident of the peninsula will spend the first five years of punishment in prison. He was found guilty of organizing the activities 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).
On the website of the court there is a card of the case with such articles, the accused in it is Ernes Seitosmanov. The man was sentenced on May 24. At the same time, the Crimean Solidarity movement writes that it is about the Crimean Tatar activist Ansar Osmanov, the last hearing on whose case was held today, the case file says. However, only part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code was charged to him. The state prosecution asked Osmanov to be sentenced to 18 years in a strict regime colony.
According to the FSB, at the meetings of the Hizb ut-Tahrir branch, created by a Crimean, “intentions were discussed to change the political system and state structure of the Russian Federation with the help of propaganda, and also waging war against opponents of the ideas of a terrorist organization,” Interfax reports.
Russian authorities associate 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.
Updated at 15:21. Information from the Crimean Solidarity publication has been added.