A court in Crimea has fined the independent Muslim community “Eski Kyrym” 400 thousand rubles. The reason for the fine was the banned books found in the Zubeir-Jami mosque in Stary Krym during a visit by security forces.

Lawyer Nazim Sheikhmambetov said that before the searches began, two police officers cut off the power to the mosque and entered it before the parishioners.

“The camera footage shows that one of them went into the hall, and then he and the second officer gestured at something. One can assume different things about what the security forces were doing there. This is a gross violation of the conduct of operational-search activities of the ORM,” the lawyer said.

He noted that the community cannot be held responsible for everything that happens in the Zubeir-Jami mosque, since it is not the owner of this property.

Last year, after searches, the imam and chairman of the community, as well as two Crimean activists of Eski Kyrym, were fined 100 thousand rubles. The reason was also the storage of books from the list of "prohibited". The defense noted that the chairman of the community does not know how these books ended up in the mosque.