Kyiv protests against convictions of four Crimean Tatars in Russia accused of links with Hizb-ut-Tahrir

14:31, 07.09.2016 1 min read

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has expressed its protest in connection with unlawful conviction in Russia of four Crimean Tatars who are charged with having links with the Hizb-ut-Tahrir organization.

"The cynicism of the occupant state: they released Umerov from hospital and at the same time illegally convicted four Crimean Tatars to 7 and 5 years in prison... We express our protest against the illegal verdicts. We demand the Russian Federation stop repression against Crimean Tatars," the Foreign Ministry's press secretary Mariana Betsa wrote on Twitter.

On September 7, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don passed a guilty verdict on four Crimean Tatars who are accused of ties with the Hizb-ut-Tahrir organization.

The court sentenced Ruslan Zeitullayev to seven years and gave five-year sentences to Ferat Saifullayev, Rustem Vaitov and Yuriy Primov.

All the convicts will serve time in a general penitentiary.