Ruslan Zeitullayev, Crimean Tatar activist who is now held in the pre-trial detention facility in Rostov got sentenced to 15 years-long imprisonment. Journalist Anton Naumlyuk reported that on Facebook.
In September 2016, North Caucasus military district court announced verdicts in cases of four Crimean Tatars - Ruslan Zeitullayev, Ferat Saifullayev, Rustem Vagitov and Nuri Primov. All four were detained the Russian-annexed Crimea under charges with ‘terrorism’ and alleged membership in Hizb-Ut Tahrir, the infamous terrorist organization. They were also accused of creating a cell of this organization in Crimea.
Emil Kurbedinov, the lawyer of Zeitullayev described this decision as ‘a disgrace’. He also said the defendant made a speech at the court session on Thursday, commenting on the Russian authorities’ vision of terrorism; it is ‘so much distorted that innocent people find themselves in the dock, though these people never blew anything up, never put anything on fire and never took hostages’.
