Ten individuals prosecuted in the Kazan Hizb ut-Tahrir case are political prisoners, Memorial says
Memorial Human Rights Centre considers the charges groundless and demands that all defendants be released.
In Samara the trial is currently taking place of Ilnar Zyalilov, Abdukakhor Mumindzhanov, Ruslan Gabidullin, Azat Gataullin, Sergei Derzhipilsky, Zulfat Sabirzyanov, Rustem Salakhutdinov, Komil Matiev, Farid Kryev and Ilnaz Safiullin. All the defendants are charged with involvement in the international religious organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, designated as terrorist by the Supreme Court of Russia in 2003. The trial is being heard by the Volga District Military Court.
As in other prosecutions for participation in Hizb ut-Tahrir known to us, there is not a shred of evidence in the case that the defendants committed or planned to commit offences involving violence, still less any actions that could, in common sense terms, be called terrorist.
Memorial believes the Supreme Court decision to designate Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist organisation is mistaken. We consider the charges against the defendants in the case of the Kazan Ten groundless, and we demand the release of all defendants.
The charges against the defendants:
- Zyalilov, Mumindzhanov, Gabidullin, Gataullin and Derzhipilsky have been charged under Article 205.5, Section 1, of the Russian Criminal Code (organisation of the activity of a terrorist organisation, punishable by a sentence from 15 years’ deprivation of liberty to life). Sabirzyanov, Salakhutdinov, Matiev, Kryev and Safiullin have been charged under Article 205.5, Section 2 (involvement in the activity of a terrorist organisation, punishable by a sentence from 10 to 20 years).
- The prosecution considers the first five defendants drew the other five into the activity of the terrorist organisation. This activity took the form of meetings at which the defendants discussed, variously, political events around the world, the application of sharia norms in daily life, the best ways to spread the group’s ideas among Muslims, and the organisation of football games to attract new followers.
- Zyalilov, Gabidullin and Gataullin have also been charged under Article 205.1, Section 1, of the Russian Criminal Code (abetting terrorist activity, punishable by up to 15 years’ deprivation of liberty) for involvement in the collection of membership fees. In addition, several of the defendants have also been charged under Article 282, Section 1 (incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as violating human dignity) — an article that has now been partly decriminalised — and Article 205.2, Section 2 (public incitement of terrorist activity, public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism using the Internet, punishable by up to seven years’ deprivation of liberty).
- The grounds for these charges are various publications on social networks, which in most cases would seem to be absurd to use to incriminate the defendants. For example, Gabidullin is charged with reposting a news item from the TV channel Nastoyashchee vremya [Current Time] about the entering into force of the so-called Yarovaya Law and writing an accompanying commentary: ‘We await the first victims.’ Sabirzyanov, for his part, has been charged on the basis of a photograph picturing a placard that read: ‘O Allah, I beg you to defend me from troubles and griefs, from weakness and laziness, from cowardice and avarice, and from the burden of debt and vexations.’
- Abdukakhor Mumindzhanov has been charged with an offence under Article 205.2, Section 1, of the Russian Criminal Code (public incitement of terrorist activity, public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism, punishable by up to five years’ deprivation of liberty) for having made a speech in September 2013 at Kazan’s Sultan mosque in which he urged his audience to join Hizb ut-Tahrir or ‘at least pray to God.’
Recognition of an individual as a political prisoner, or of a prosecution as politically motivated, does not imply that Memorial Human Rights Centre shares or approves the individual’s views, statements or actions.
More information about the case of the Kazan Ten can be read on our website.
PayPal — an e-wallet for giving help to all Russian political prisoners [email protected].
