Their lawyers reported about it to Crimean Solidarity.

Marlen Mustafayev and Ametkhan Abdulvapov will remain in Simferopol SIZO-1 until April 7, 2022.

The prosecution alleges that Mustafayev is a member of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, banned in the Russian Federation. And that he, together with Azamat Eyupov, Riza Omerov, and Ayder Dzhapparov, “organized a terrorist cell in Belogorsk”.

Abdulvapov is involved in another case as a "participant in a terrorist organization" under part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The reason for the arrest in the pre-trial detention centre, according to the investigators and the "court", was the "threat of destruction of evidence", influence on witnesses, and the possibility to escape using a Ukrainian passport.

At the Leninsky City "Court" in Sevastopol, the defence was denied the presence of the media and listeners at the trial, citing coronavirus restrictions. Correspondents were not allowed to the session at the Kyivsky District "Court".

“As Ernest said, searches in his house took place within seven years. If he was going to hide, he would have done it a long time ago”, - lawyer Aleksey Ladin said, adding that he plans to apply for an examination of fingerprints on books planted on Seitosmanov.

Ernest Seitosmanov is the brother of political prisoner Enver Seitosmanov, a resident of Sevastopol district, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for his involvement in the banned Islamic Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir in Russia.

Read more: FSB detains four Crimean Tatar activists in occupied Crimea. What is known

Seitosmanovv attended trials of Crimean Tatars in Crimea and Rostov-on-Don, assisted the families of political prisoners in resolving social issues, and participated in civic initiatives.

On November 23, 2021, after a meeting with lawyer Edem Semedlyaev, police officers drew up an “administrative protocol” against Ernest Seitosmanov. The activist spent 13 days in the temporary detention facility in Simferopol.

The occupying Leninsky district court of Sevastopol left Ansar Osmanov under arrest.

"The father of five children, a man I saw at almost every court hearing, was shooting videos in support of Crimean Muslim Tatars. It is not terrorists who are being stopped, but the activists. The Investigative Committee is turning a blind eye”, - said lawyer Emil Kurbedinov.

The defence insisted on applying to the man the Fourth Geneva Convention and choosing house arrest so that he could be with his family and not in the torture of a remand centre. The man was arrested until April 6, 2022. He will be in SIZO-1 during the investigation.

"Yesterday I came to the court hearings - today I am behind bars”, - Osmanov said.

FSB officers tried to deceive him, saying that no one came to his hearing.

The defence plans to appeal this decision to the Sevastopol City Court within three days. The lawyer was not present during the search because the special services cut off the defender's mobile connection.

Ansar Osmanov and Ernest Seitosmanov are suspected by the FSB of organizing the Sevastopol Group.

What is known

• Although Hizb ut-Tahrir has not carried out a single terrorist attack since its inception in 1953, it is considered a terrorist in Russia and its members are unjustifiably considered terrorists. Human rights activists believe that Russia's anti-extremist and anti-terrorist legislation has consistently become a repressive tool in the fight against dissent and peaceful assembly.
• A total of 85 people have already been detained in this category of cases. Forty of them were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment - from seven to nineteen years in prison.
• On February 9, in occupied Crimea, "security forces'' conducted several illegal searches in the households of Crimean Tatar activists. After the searches, Ansar Osmanov, Ametkhan Abdulvapov, Marlen Mustafayev, and Ernest Seitosmanov were illegally detained and taken to the FSB occupation department.
• Human rights activists note that during the searches, it was not possible to get through to lawyers, as their mobile phones were not available.
• The Russian FSB claims that four Crimean Tatars detained after searches in the occupied Crimea on February 9 belonged to the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir and carried out "anti-constitutional activities."

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