Court Approves Extension of Arrest of Crimean Tatar Political Prisoners
The Supreme Court of Crimea approved the detention of Crimean Tatars Emir Kurtnezirov, Abibulla Semedlyaev, Rustem Mustafayev, Bakhtiyar Ablaev and Myrzaali Tazhibaev. According to lawyer Emil Kurbedinov, the judge "simply took and rewrote" the investigator's assumptions in the ruling.
"In fact, the defendants are being locked up in pretrial detention only because of their positions. People do not admit guilt, refuse to incriminate themselves and others," the defense attorney was indignant.
Relatives of the accused said that during the search, banned books were planted on the latter. In addition, a search report was not drawn up.
The Crimean Tatars are accused of having ties to the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in the Russian Federation. According to human rights activists, members of Hizb ut-Tahrir are being persecuted not for preparing a coup d'etat or terrorism, but for criticizing the Russian authorities.
