In Crimea court upheld arrest of human rights defender Emir-Useyin Kuku

Kremlin-controlled Supreme Court upheld the decision to extend the detention of Emir-Usyin Kuku, the defendant in the “Hizb ut-Tahrir” case, until April 8.

As reported by the reporter of the Radio Liberty.

According to lawyer Oleksiy Ladin, the court “has not based its decision in any way”.

“Defense strongly disagrees with this decision and will appeal against this decision in higher courts. According to the defense, court has made crudely violated criminal procedure, the court of appeal took over the functions of the court of first instance, which is inadmissible under the legislation of the Russian Federation”, – noted the lawyer.

As reported by son of Emir-Useyin Kuku, father feels good and is in good condition.

Earlier it was reported that the rescheduled the hearing about the consideration of appeals of Emir-Useyin Kuku and his lawyer Oleksiy Ladin on February 20.

As a reminder, participants of Yalta “Hizb ut-Tahir” case remain in prison for more than a year. The first four of the defendants were arrested back in February 11, 2016. Emir-Useyin Kuku, member of the Human Rights Contact Centre is the most famous one. Builders Musliv Aliev and Enver Bekirov as well as florist Vadym Siruk were also arrested.

Emir-Useyin Kuku is the Head of the Human Rights Contact Centre in Yalta. The tasks of the organization, in particular, were to monitor the human rights violations, legal assistance and dissemination of information on cases of politically motivated disappearances in the Crimea. Emir-Useyin Kuku is also member of the Crimean Human Rights Group. Before his arrest in February 2016, he was actively engaged in documenting human rights violations in Yalta and its region. He has provided legal aid and support to ethnic Muslims and Crimean Tatars, who are constantly discriminated against and persecuted for political reasons.

Representatives of the International Islamic political organization “Hizb ut-Tahir” called its mission to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate. However they reject all kinds of terroristic methods to achieve their goals and believe their organization to be unfairly subjected to persecution in Russia.

Russia’s Supreme Court banned “Hizb ut-Tahir” in 2003 and included it in the list of terrorist organizations.