The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced a resident of the annexed Crimea to four years in prison in a strict regime penal colony, with the first two years in prison for participation in the activities of the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization banned in Russia. This was reported by Radio Krym with reference to the press service of the FSB department for Crimea and Sevastopol. Officially, the court verdict was not reported, the name of the man was not disclosed.
According to the case file, the convict became a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2015. Since then, he "introduced propaganda to recruit followers and set the stage for a violent seizure of power and a change in the constitutional order of the Russian Federation," according to the FSB. The security forces detained the man in August 2022, they claim that the man admitted his guilt during the investigation and entered into a pre-trial agreement with the prosecutor.
On April 13, the Russian prosecutor's office asked Ernes Seitosmanov, an activist accused of involvement in the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir, to 18 years in prison.
Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Party of Islamic Liberation) was recognized as terrorist in Russia and annexed Crimea by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.
On January 11, five defendants in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case – Dzhemil Gafarov, Servet Gaziev, Alim Karimov, Seyran Murtaza and Erfan Osmanov – were sentenced to 13 years in prison each under articles on participation in the activities of a terrorist organization (part 2 of article 205.5 of the Criminal Code ) and preparations for the seizure of power (Article 278 of the Criminal Code with the application of Part 1 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code). In February, it became known that 60-year-old Gafarov died in a pre-trial detention center. Even before his arrest, Gafarov had a disability group III, he was diagnosed with kidney failure, and the disease progressed under arrest. In November 2022, he suffered a heart attack in a pre-trial detention center, hardly got up and complained of chest pains. In the pre-trial detention center he was given only validol.
