The Southern Area Military Court sentenced Mr.Ernes Seytosmanov, a Crimean Tatar activist, and a defendant of the Crimean Muslims case, to 18 years in the maximum security regime penal colony.
The first four years Mr.Seytosmanov shall serve the sentence in the prison. Then he shall be transferred to the penal colony. Once released, he, according to the court decision, shall be under restrictions for 18 months, i.e. he shall be checked at the FSIN (Federal Penitentiary Service) twice a month, shall stay at home from 10:00pm to 06:00am, shall not change the places of residence and work without notifying the FSIN, and attend the public events, as Crimean Solidarity reports.
The defense intends to appeal against the sentence in the appellate and cassation instances.
To remind: prosecutor Vladyslav Kuznetsov demanded 18 years’ sentence in the maximum-security regime penal colony for the 37-year-old political prisoner.
“Terrorism is an extremely grievous article. For Islam this is absolutely condemned crime. Being a Muslim I am totally against terrorism, and I consider the article incriminated to me as slander. Terrorism is basically defined as intimidation. When considering my entire case, there was no record when I had intimidated anyone, I did not cause any harm to society, to people,” Mr.Seytosmanov said in his final speech at the court.
Speaking further, he told about a search of his house and reminded the court that dozens of other Crimean residents, in his opinion, had been unlawfully persecuted.
“In fact, it is I who was intimidated. They came at 03:00am. My old mother who lived with me was terrified. We are speaking about numerous such cases, well known intimidations. I link this with terror… I have been detained, convoyed, I am kept in custody, this is the crime against me’, Mr.Seytosmanov pointed out.
As reported, Ernes Seytosmanov’s home was searched on 9 February 2022. There were several searches that day: house of Ansar Osmanov, a ‘Crimean Solidarity’ activist, in Bakhchisarai district, that of Ametkhan Abdulvapov in Simferopol district, that of Marlin Mustafayev in Bilohirsk district, and that of Ernes Seytosmanov in Balaklava district of Sevastopol. They all were charged with RF Criminal Code articles 205.5 (“Management of terrorist organization activities, and participation in terrorist organization activities”), and 278 (“Preparation for a violent seizure of power by an organized group based on a prior conspiracy”).
On 5 December 2019 the Southern Area Military Court sentenced his full brother Enver Seytosmanov to 17 years in the maximum-security regime penal colony.
[1] Federal Penitentiary Service
