Court in Simferopol leaves Crimean Tatars behind bars

The occupation court left in custody four Crimean Tatars from the case of the fourth Dzhankoy group, despite the defense's arguments that the charges were groundless. They will stay in the pre-trial detention center until October.

This was reported by lawyer Edem Semedlyayev to the public human rights movement Crimean Solidarity.

The Supreme Court of Simferopol upheld the decision of the lower court to extend the arrest of four Crimean Tatars - members of the so-called Fourth Dzhankoy Group. Thus, they will remain in the pre-trial detention center at least until October 4.

According to the lawyer, the investigator and the prosecutor insisted on keeping them in custody, arguing that there were risks of escape and pressure on witnesses. At the same time, the defense considers these allegations to be unsubstantiated. The lawyer emphasized that his clients had no previous problems with the law and were strongly connected to Crimea by family and social ties.

At the end of June, Kyiv District Court had already extended the arrest of five defendants in the case - Rustem Mustafayev, Abibul Smedlyayev, Emir Kurtnezirov, Mirzali Tajibayev and Bakhtiyar Ablayev. The Supreme Court of Crimea partially overturned this decision, but after a retrial, four of them were again kept in custody until October.

All five are currently being held in Simferopol's SIZO-2. They were detained on February 5 after searches in the Dzhankoy district. Among the arrested are a plumber, a cook, a handyman, the son of a former political prisoner and another local resident. All of them are accused of involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization banned in Russia.

Relatives said that during the searches, the FSB security forces planted banned literature, but did not leave any protocols of the searches. Human rights activists consider the cases against the Crimean Tatars to be politically motivated, and the persecution itself to be a tool of pressure on active members of the community who openly criticize the Russian authorities in Crimea.

In early June, the prosecutor demanded 17 years in a strict regime penal colony for the activists of the first Dzhankoy group among Crimean Tatars. The lawyers emphasized that the prosecution relied solely on audio recordings, and no evidence of terrorist activities was provided.

Анна Бальчінос