New accusations for the Crimean Muslims are introduced to extend the investigation – lawyer

Vadym Siruk, defendant in the “Hizb ut-Tahrir” case, faces new charges under the Art. 278 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

As reported by his lawyer Emil Kurbedinov to the Human Rights Information Centre.

“This is official information. Sergey Makhnev, the investigator of the FSB of the Russian Federation, informed about this. Over the phone he informed that on Tuesday Vadym Siruk will be charged under the Art. 278 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation titled “Forcible Seizure of Power or Forcible Retention of Power”. My colleagues reported that their clients from “Yalta Four” will be facing same charges”, – said Kurbedinov.

“Yalta Four” – are Crimean Muslims, who were arrested on February 11, 2016, in Crimea. Vadym Siruk, Enver Bekirov, Emir-Useyin Kuku and Muslim Aliev were arrested on that day. Since then Crimeans are constantly kept in detention centre in Simferopol.

According to the lawyer, such charges will be presented to other defendants in the “Hizb ut-Tahrir” case. The lawyer is also convinced that several criminal cases, which were opened against the Crimean Muslims, will be merged into one.

“They will present the charges and immediately make a decision to merge the cases. This will be done in a week. This will be a singular criminal case which will indict everyone under the article of participating in the “Hizb ut-Tahrir” and under the article of “Forcible Seizure of Power”, – said Emil Kurbedinov.

He believes that such accusations can be presented for those Crimeans whose cases were not considered in the court yet. According to the lawyer, new criminal article is added in order to delay the investigation of the criminal case. The case of Vadym Siruk and “Yalta Four” lasts almost a year.