The Russian Supreme Court considered the cassation appeal and upheld the decisions of courts of previous instances on Vadym Bektemirov, a “Case of Crimean Muslims” defendant.
“Vadym is a political prisoner who was convicted on the charge of terrorist articles, known to everyone, – Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It is as old as Adam story, but predicted and expected. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation also did not accept the arguments of the defense and upheld the sentence and the appeal decision of the Military Court of Appeal in Vlasikha”, lawyer Emil Kurbedinov told the CRIMEAN SOLIDARITY association.
According to the lawyer, the FSB “has been exercising political repressions under aegis of fight against terrorism, just arresting and imprisoning for years, in fact, religious figures and activists”.
To remind:
On February 11, 2023, the Southern Area Military Court (Rostov-na-Donu) read out a sentence to Zekir’ya Muratov and Vadym Bektemirov, Crimean Tatar political prisoners: 11.5 and 11 years in confinement for, as it is said, membership in the terrorist organization (judges Timur Mashukov and Aleksey Magomadov).
Zekir’ya Muratov and Vadym Bektemirov were arrested during one of search waves carried out by the Russian security men in the occupied Crimea on July 7, 2020. During the search these security men planted forbidden publications to withdraw them later as “evidence” of involvement in the Hizb-ut-Tahrir (an Islamic political organization that acts legally in the territory of Ukraine and in most countries of the world but is recognized terrorist by decision of the Supreme Court of Russia).
