Court arrested Crimean Tatar Edem Smailov

On Tuesday, May 22, the Kiev District Court in Simferopol imposed a pre-trial restraint to Edem Smailov in a form of arrest in a pre-trial detention center. Crimean Tatar was detained in Dolinnoe village (Bakhchisaray region, Crimea).

Being both the citizen journalists and one of the coordinators from the public association «Crimean Solidarity», Server Mustafayev and Edem Smailov are arrested until June 9.

«Crimean Solidarity» writes on Facebook.

The meeting passed in closed session. Smailov’s relatives could not get to the hearing, but saw a man in the car nearby the court. Smailov’s family congratulated Crimean Tatar with his birthday through the fence. That day Smailov turned 50.

Searches at Server Mustafayev’s and Edem Smailov’s places and their detention were carried out within «Bakhchisaray Hizb ut-Tahrir case».

Case figures in it are Timur Ibragimov, Memet Belyalov, Server Zekerjayev, Seyran Saliev, Marlen (Suleyman) Asanov and Ernest Ametov. They were detained and later arrested in October 2017.

In March, the court extended to Ibragimov, Belyalov, Zekerjayev, Saliev, Asanov and Ametov the arrest term until June 9.

Server Mustafayev and Edem Smailov were detained in Crimea after the housechecks on May 21.

«Crimean solidarity» makes of Crimean Tatars Server Mustafayev’s and Edem Smailov’s detention as «the persecution for an active civil, religious and national position and intimidation of society as a whole».

«Crimean Solidarity» appealed to media and human rights organizations to cover as much as possible situation with Crimean Tatars’ persecution and «take all measures to compel Russia to respect the rights of illegally detained Servers Mustafayev and Edem Smailov».

Server Mustafayev is a well-known activist. In summer 2016, he and several other compatriots founded the public association «Crimean Solidarity». Mustafayev is one of NGO’s coordinators. He regularly comes to the court hearings against Crimean Tatars and is present during the searches of his compatriots.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the latest searches and Crimean Tatars’ detentions in Crimea, and appealed to the international community «to increase political and diplomatic pressure on the aggressor state to release Ukrainian citizens who illegally detained by Russia».