SIMFEROPOL, March 12. /TASS/. A group of members of the international terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir (outlawed in Russia), who were arrested in Crimea and the Rostov Region a year ago, face more charges — those of an attempt to seize power, their lawyer Edem Semedlyayev told TASS on Thursday.
FSB operatives in March 2019 quashed a Hizb ut-Tahrir cell in Crimea and detained 20 of its members. Another three members of the same cell were arrested in Rostov-on-Don while trying to leave for Ukraine. Two more suspects were detained later and another four are in hiding abroad, the lawyer said, adding that originally there were a total of 29 names on the list of suspects.
"Yesterday the prolongation of the restrictive measure was considered. From the investigator’s request we learned that another article has now been added to the list of charges. As far as we understand, a criminal case was opened under article 278 of the Criminal Code (seizure of power by force). No formal charges have been presented yet. I believe that the investigator will do this within twelve days," Semedlyayev commented.
The newly-formulated charges will be a sufficient reason for the investigation to request prolongation of the arrest by more than one year.
Earlier, the defense said that five of the arrestees were charged as organizers under part 1 of article 205.5 of the Criminal Code, and the others, as accomplices under part 2 of article 205.5.
Another four Hizb ut-Tahrir members were nabbed in Crimea on March 11. The public relations center of the Federal Security Service (FSB) told TASS that the four men in question had been recruiting Crimea’s Muslims and spreading terrorist ideology.