The Kievsky District Court in Simferopol ordered arrests of 23 Crimean residents, who had been detained by the Federal Security Service over the past week on suspicion of their alignment with the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization (banned in Russia), on March 27 and 28.
“All of them will stay under arrest until May 15,” an informed source told Interfax.
Nine suspects were put under arrest on March 27, and the court ordered the arrest of the others at closed-door hearings on March 28.
Interfax has no comments from the court and the FSB.
Lawyer Siyar Panich told Interfax that five suspects had been charged with “organizing the activity of an organization branded as terrorist in accordance with Russian laws,” and the rest are indicted on counts of “their alignment with an organization branded as terrorist in Russia.”
The defendants are facing from 15 to 20 years in prison with a fine of up to 1 million rubles, or a lifetime sentence, and from ten to 20 years in prison with a fine of up to 500,000 rubles, depending on the charges.
Homes of the suspects were searched in the Simferopol district of Crimea on March 27, and 20 persons were detained. The detentions of three more Crimean residents in Rostov-on-Don were reported on March 28.
