Russia sentences Crimean Tatar to 17 years in prison for a meeting he didn’t attend

Tuesday, 19 July 2022, 19:29

ALONA MAZURENKO – TUESDAY, 19 JULY 2022, 19:29

Azamat Eiupov, a 59-year-old Crimean Tatar, has been sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment in Russia for a Muslim meeting that he didn’t even attend.

Source: Graty, a legal journalism newspaper

Details: A military court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced Eiupov to 17 years’ imprisonment for being a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an international Islamic political party.

According to the Russian investigation, in 2017 Eiupov held training sessions for the party’s cell in Bilohirsk (Autonomous Republic of Crimea). Yet only top-secret FSB reports claim this.

Everyone who participated in the meeting says that Eiupov did not attend it. Experts did not identify his voice in the audio recording of the meeting.

Moreover, Eiupov’s defence found the real moderator of the 2017 Muslim meeting. He and his family found refuge in Kyiv after his children were electrocuted and beaten by FSB operatives.

Lawyers believe that the real reason Eiupov is being persecuted by the Russian secret services is because he took part in the Crimean Tatars’ protest against repressions in Red Square on 10 July 2019.