Three more Crimean Tatars have been thrown in jail by Russian authorities for their alleged connection to pan-Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir, Ukraine’s Ombudswoman Ludmyla Denisova reported on Jan. 12.
A military court in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don has illegally sentenced the three Ukrainians to a total of 48 years in a maximum-security prison, despite a lack of evidence and numerous breaches of court proceedings, lawyers say.
“The Kremlin’s repressive machine continues to terrorize Ukrainian citizens,” Denisova said in the Facebook post.
Enver Omerov, 59, was convicted of organizing terrorist activities, receiving a sentence of 18 years. His son Riza got 13 years, while Aider Dzhepparov got 17 years in jail after the court found them guilty of involvement with a terrorist organization.
All three were also charged with preparing for a violent seizure of power as part of an organized group.
The charges are standard practice for Russia, which has persecuted scores of Crimean Tatars. The night before sentencing, police detained 120 activists and family members on the Crimean Bridge, as they tried to drive to Rostov-on-Don to support the accused, according to human rights initiative Crimean Solidarity.
The police took away the detainees’ IDs and transportation documents without explanation. After being kept on the bridge through the night, they were eventually released but were only permitted to drive back to Crimea.
Shady evidence
The court’s main evidence included secret witness testimonies and expert analysis of audio recordings obtained through wiretapping Enver Omerov’s home.
Omerov’s lawyer, Nazim Sheikhmambetov, told the Kyiv Post that the charges and the evidence were fabricated for political reasons.
Wiretapping and use of secret witnesses are common practices in Crimea.
Mosques, schools, and private spaces of local muslims are regularly wiretapped to record conversations on religious or political topics.
Experts who work closely with the Crimean and Russian courts later analyze the recordings. They examine the words and the context in the audio, determining whether the speakers are indeed linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir and have radical motivations.
Activists and human rights defenders are certain this analysis is faulty.
Secret witnesses, whose identity is not revealed supposedly for safety reasons, are usually individuals that remain in Crimea illegally or have issues with the police, Sheikhmambetov says. Local authorities pressure them into cooperating with the investigation and testifying against the Crimean Tatars for the sake of avoiding personal legal trouble.
Looking for scapegoats
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international islamist political organization, which seeks to re-establish the Islamic Caliphate and unite Muslims around the world.
Although it operates legally in Ukraine and most European countries, Hizb ut-Tahrir is considered a terrorist group in Russia.
According to the Crimean Human Rights Group, 74 Crimean Tatars have been persecuted for their alleged connection to Hizb ut-Tahrir. Lawyers, activists and Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs believe the cases were politically motivated.
Since the illegal occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, local de facto authorities sought to ostracize and imprison anyone who rejected the Kremlin’s official rhetoric.
Crimean Tatars – a Ukrainian minority native to the peninsula – have actively rejected Russia’s invasion of their homeland, for which they’ve been heavily repressed ever since.
“Russia’s security services have turned the Crimean Tatar people into a training ground for extremism and terrorism cases,” human rights defender and activist of Crimean Solidarity initiative Lutfiye Zudiyeva told the Kyiv Post.
“This is how they try to justify their annexation of Crimea to the civilized world. As in, supposedly there was a terrorist threat to the entire Europe on the peninsula,” she added. “But in reality, they persecute people who’ve never had anything to do with terrorism.”
