SIMFEROPOL, May 10. /TASS/. Operatives of the Russian federal security service FSB have detained a suspected follower of the pan-Islamist terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir in the federal city of Sevastopol, the press service of the FSB branch in the Republic of Crimea told TASS.
"A search was held at the suspect's house," the press release said. "The operatives found and confiscated extremist literature published by Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami [the Islamic Party of Liberation], as well as leaflets of the organization and telecom gadgets. The suspect was detained."
The authorities have instituted a criminal case for him citing Clause 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ['Participation in the Activities of a Terrorist Organization'].
Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami is an international pan-Islamic religious and political organization set up in 1953 that sets a goal of itself to eliminate all the non-Islamic governments and to return to a genuinely Islamic way of life. In Russia, the Supreme Court ruled in 2003 to list it among terrorist organizations and to ban its activities.
In 2016, the then Prosecutor of Crimea, Natalya Poklonskaya who is now a deputy of the State Duma told TASS that Hizb ut-Tahrir had had a cell in Crimea for many years before the region's reunification with Russia in 2014. The organization was not banned in Ukraine.
Also in 2016, the security services detained more than ten suspected disciples of the organization, who were active members of its Crimean cells.
Crimea's mufti Hajji Emirali Ablayev warned in Feburary 2017 that the followers of extremist Islamic sects including Hizb ut-Tahrir had stepped up their operations in Crimea.