News & Comment
Russian Authorities Pursue Hizb ut Tahrir’s Shabab on
Political Grounds

News

On 4 December, the MEMORIAL Human Rights Center reported at its Internet resource, “On November 29, a round table discussion was held at the Sakharov Center in Moscow on the topic “Human Rights and the Problem of “Prohibited Organizations” in Russia”. The reason for the discussing of this topic was the July judgement in the case of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Ufa, in which 21 defendants received up to 24 years in a penal colony. In fact, the convicts were guilty only in the peaceful expression of their convictions that were not associated with any calls for violence.

The similar judicial processings involving various “forbidden communities” are taking place in Moscow, Tatarstan and other regions of Russia, as well as in the Crimea. In the opinion of human rights activists, sentences can hardly be considered reasonable and fair.”

Comment

The flywheel of repression against Muslims and in particular against the Shabab of Hizb in Russia is gaining momentum. The unjustified accusations of terrorist activities and the systematic violations on the court hearings leave no doubt that this is directly related to the political position of the authorities towards Islam and Muslims.

The round table held in the Sakharov Center on November 29, brought together human rights activists, lawyers and relatives of Hizb Shabab accused of participating in a banned “terrorist organization”, as the Russian authorities present. Human rights activists and lawyers shared their views on the trials and talked about systematic violations.

Speaking briefly, the human rights activists and lawyers said that the processes of arrests, investigations and trials against Hizb Shabab are undertaken routinely. The cases are initiated without elements of the so-called crime, that is, a terrorist act or the threat of a terrorist act, there are simply no facts of crime.

The expert assessment is carried out by the obviously interested persons, completely dependent on the investigation. Judges and prosecutors in court fully stand up for their conclusions, not allowing the accused to ask these experts questions identifying the methods of their research, the method of argumentation, the method of checking their research, competence, sources of literature, etc., since these questions reveal their incompetence, bias, the incorrectness of their research method, and even the violation of these methods by the experts themselves.

During the trials, the judges are trying in every way to limit the defense and the accused of filing claims under various pretexts. The filed claims are arrogantly and unceremoniously rejected completely unmotivated and unreasonable and illegal. The claims of prosecution are satisfied in full, despite their being unmotivated and unjustified. The principle of equality of the parties is out of the question.

The judges refuse to call independent experts, and those appointed by the investigation are engaged. If independent experts make conclusions about the absence of extremism in the Hizb literature, they receive a warning about the inadmissibility of extremist activities with the threat of initiating of a criminal case in relation to them, on charges of extremism and justifying terrorism.

The judges reject in all possible ways the questions concerning the legality and validity of the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Russian Federation from February 14, 2003, referring to the fact that this decision is a decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and is not appealable. Also, the judges do not allow the asking of questions and find out the presence or absence of the actions of the accused, at least somehow related to terrorism. Or with the presence of any socially dangerous consequences likely to occur or may arise as a result of the activities of the accused. For in this case, the absurdity of the charges will become apparent. It will become obvious that their activity has nothing to do with terrorism, extremism, does not have any socially dangerous consequences.

It is a well-known fact that Hizb ut Tahrir is an Islamic political party, refuses to use force because it does not conform to the method of the Prophet Mohammed (saw), in establishing the Islamic state Khilafah (Caliphate).

Accordingly, there is no call for the acts of force in the party program. The fact that the special services have a large amount of materials from the party’s literature gives the authorities a full opportunity to study the education of Hizb, and will be convinced that Hizb is carrying out ideological, not physical work. And then, until today, there is not a single proven fact of the participation of the Hizb Shabab in the commission of the terrorist attack, the preparation or incitement to it.

Recently, the Memorial Human Rights Center published the second review, “CRIMINAL PERSECUTION OF TERRORISM IN RUSSIA AND ABUSE OF THE STATE,” devoted to the unlawful use of anti-terrorism articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, namely art. 205 (terrorist activities). At the end of 2013, Art. 205.5 (Organization of the activities of a terrorist organization and participation in it). This article is mainly used for Muslims. Today, according to Art. 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation about 230 Shabab connected with Hizb are imprisoned.

In this review, they are talking about the persecution and the application of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code to the Shabab of Hizb ut Tahrir. In the final part of the review the summary is written: “The public danger of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Russia is hypothetical. The question of whether the organization should be considered extremist remains a debatable, but it is not terrorist, despite the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.”

In conclusion, we can safely say that the prosecution of the Hizb Shabab by the Russian authorities, the fabrication of criminal cases and the categorical unwillingness to provide reasonable arguments for their accusations and persecutions are groundless. This once again proves all the inconsistency and unfounded prosecution of the Shabab for the so-called crimes, which in reality have never been. The only reason for the persecution of the Hizb Shabab is and remains a purely ideological political side. But no matter how much the disbelieving power of the Russian Federation would not contrive and try to stop the call of the Hizb Shabab, Allah Almighty will help His slaves and establish His religion. Allah Almighty says in His Noble Book:

(يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُطْفِؤُواْ نُورَ اللّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَيَأْبَى اللّهُ إِلاَّ أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ)

“They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it.” [9:32]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Eldar Khamzin
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir