At the court hearing on the case of Crimean Tatar political prisoners, a witness was unable to answer questions from the defense
The Southern District Military Court interrogated a prosecution witness, security officer Renat Valiulin, in the criminal case against Crimean Tatars Seidamet Mustafayev, Eldar Yakubov, Abdulmedzhit Seytumerov, Ruslan Asanov, Ametkhan Umerov and Remzi Nimetulayev.
According to lawyer Emil Kurbedinov, the security officer was unable to say anything clearly.
“All his answers were in the form of: ‘Everything is in the case materials’, ‘I don’t remember’ and ‘Everything was carried out with the sanction of the court’. In principle, he did not answer any of the questions from the defense,” the lawyer concluded.
In addition, the judge refused to answer many questions from the defense.
Earlier, Crimean Tatars were charged under articles on organizing a terrorist organization and participating in it based on their membership in the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir. At one of the previous hearings, another prosecution witness, a former employee of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea (SAMC) Ruslan Bairov, said that he was not aware of the involvement of the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir in terrorist acts and violence. He also does not know why the organization was included in the list of terrorist organizations in Russia.
Crimean Muslims are regularly charged with involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Russia. Its alleged members are accused and sentenced to real terms based on holding meetings in apartments and reading religious literature.
