22 Years in a Special Regime Colony:
10 Muslims Sentenced in Kazan

On 5 February 2020, in Kazan at a mobile court session, the Volga District Military Court sentenced ten Muslims for participating in the activities of Hizb ut Tahrir. By a decision of the Supreme Court of Russia dated February 14, 2003, the party was recognized as a terrorist organization.

The convicts were charged under Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of Russia (Criminal Code) “Organization of the activities of a terrorist organization”; for Part 2 of the Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Participation in the activities of a terrorist organization”; Part 1 of the Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Assistance to terrorist activities”; Part 2 of the Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Public calls for terrorist activities, public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism using the Internet”; Part 1 of the Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Public calls for terrorist activities, public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism”.

Ilnar Zyalilov was sentenced to 22 years in a penal colony, Ruslan Gabidullin and Azat Gataullin to 19 years in a penal colony, Abdukakhor Muminjanov received 17 years in a penal colony, Sergei Derzhipilsky - 16 years in a penal colony, Zulfat Sabirzyanov, Komil Matiev and Farid Kryev to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony respectively, Rustem Salakhutdinov to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony, Ilnaz Safiullin to 11 years in a maximum security penal colony. Ilnar Zyalilov and Azat Gataullin were previously convicted and were serving sentences in Russian prisons for participating in Hizb ut Tahrir.

All the convicts were arrested in mid-March 2017. And all this time they were kept in the pre-trial detention centers. The defendants did not deny their membership in Hizb ut Tahrir, but none of them pleaded guilty, as they are convinced that there is no corpus delicti in their acts. They stated that the charge was fabricated by the criminal Russian intelligence agencies.

The Human Rights Center, Memorial, recognized all the accused as political prisoners, as all of them are deprived of their liberty in the absence of a corpus delict and a crime event.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Mohammad Mansour