Russian courts extend arrests of five Crimean Tatars until August 15

Russian courts extended arrests of five defendants in so-called “Hizb ut-Tahrir case” until August 15.

The Taganrog City Court of Rostov region in Russia extended the pre-trial restriction in form of the arrest of four defendants in the second Simferopol “Hizb ut-Tahrir case” detained in Crimea on March 27.

According to the Crimea.Realities portal, Seyran Murtaza, Enver Ametov, Medzhit Abdurakhmanov and Rustem Seytkhalilov will stay in remand prison until August 15.

“Everything was as usual: sets of clichés about the need to extend the pre-trial detention because of interrogation of 15 witnesses and a number of investigative measures. The only petition that was granted was the admission of relatives to the pronouncement of the verdict,” lawyer Ayder Azamatov commented.

The Leninsky District Court in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, extended the arrest of another defendant in the second Simferopol "Hizb ut-Tahrir case", citizen journalist from annexed Crimea Remzi Bekirov, for three months until August 15.

Bekirov’s lawyer, Edem Semedliayev asked the court to put the defendant under house arrest at the place of his residence in the Crimean village of Strohanovka, since Bekirov is a Ukrainian citizen and political prisoner.

Bekirov himself said that he regarded his detention in remand prison in Rostov-on-Don as “deportation.”

As reported, on March 27, the officers of the Federal Security service of the Russian Federation raided the houses of Crimean Tatar activists, including of activists of the Crimean Solidarity public association, in the occupied Crimea. Twenty-four people were detained.

On March 27-28, the Kyivsky District Court in Simferopol, Crimea, arrested all the detained activists.

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