Testimony of “witnesses” in case of 10 detained Crimean Tatars are written in same handwriting

In the Russian-controlled Supreme Court of Crimea the consideration of appeal of Alim Karimov, one of the 10 Crimean Tatars detained for witnessing illegal search in the house of Marlen Mustafayev.

As reported by reporter of the Human Rights Information Centre, judge Terentyeva dismissed a motion on recording audio and filming at the court hearing.

As police officer Zolotarev stated in the court, he was not present during the detention and wrote a protocol only based on information provided by other police officers. However, he could not explain why testimony of witnesses were identical and were written in the same handwriting, as well as why he took them to consideration despite the fact that the papers were missing signatures of persons who took these notes.

Defense witnesses were also questioned and they indicated that the citizens gathered on the street have not violated public peace, while police officers have blocked traffic on two streets and have not allowed anyone behind the cordon. Afterwards, police read out the warning and immediately proceeded to detain.

Currently, the court hearing is adjourned due to absence of one of witnesses.

As a reminder, on February 21, activist Marlen Mustafayev was detained for publication made in 2014 on social network for allegedly demonstrating symbolic of the Hizb ut-Tahrir political organization, which is banned in Russia. On the morning of the same day, his house was searched by security forces.

At the same time, police has detained 10 Crimean Tatars, who were filming these events on the phones and were broadcasting them.

They were sentenced to an administrative arrest for a term of 5 days for “unauthorized mass event”.

Mustafayev was sentenced to 11 days of arrest.