A defendant in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case has been hospitalised after being transferred from a prison to a penal colony.

Yashar Muedinov, who was sentenced to 13 years in the second Simferopol “Hizb ut-Tahrir” case, has been hospitalised after being transferred to Penal Colony No. 5 in the city of Koryazhma, Arkhangelsk region in North-West Russia. This was reported by “Crimean Solidarity” with reference to his wife, Nailya Ibragimova.

“My husband fell ill during the transfer. He was given medicine and antibiotics were injected. On arrival at the colony, treatment continued, but there was no improvement. No precise diagnosis has been made, so he was transferred to hospital for further treatment,” the human rights organisation quotes Ibragimova as saying.

Muedinov served part of his court-imposed sentence in prison—he was previously held in Prison No. 1 in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region (a city in the Volga area). While there, the Crimean complained of swollen legs and lack of medical care.

In November 2022, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don found Muedinov and four other Crimean Tatars guilty of participating in a terrorist organisation (Part 2, Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code) and preparing for the violent seizure of power (Article 278 with reference to Part 1, Article 30 of the Criminal Code). Yashar Muedinov and Enver Ametov were each sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment; Rustem Sheykhaliev, Ruslan Suleymanov and Osman Arifmemetov received 14 years each. All defendants were required to serve the first four years in prison, with the remainder to be served in a strict regime colony.

• The Islamist party “Hizb ut-Tahrir” has been declared a terrorist organisation in Russia. Its members are prosecuted and sentenced to real prison terms based solely on the fact that they met in private flats, read religious literature, and recruited new members. According to the Information and Analytical Centre “SOVA”, the party was designated as terrorist in Russia unlawfully.