The Court of Appeal reduced the term of imprisonment from 18 to 17.5 years for Crimean Tatar political prisoner Ernes Seytosmanov.
The lawyer clarified that all the witnesses in the case, except one secret witness, in the court of first instance renounced their testimony and gave it under the threat of criminal prosecution. The defense also insisted on conducting two examinations - linguistic and dactyloscopic, as they claimed that they had previously been carried out with violations.
In May, the Southern District Military Court sentenced Ernes Seytosmanov to 18 years. He was found guilty of organizing the activities of the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir, banned in the Russian Federation, but legally operating in Europe. Later, the charge was reclassified to the article of participation and the term of imprisonment was slightly reduced.
