Crimea occupation authorities plan “Islamic extremist” show trial against Crimean Tatars – Mejlis head

Chubarov considers that the show trial may be aimed at legitimizing the Kremlin's control over the peninsula in the eyes of foreign politicians, with the purpose of demonstrating that "we are fighting against extremists just as you and we together fought in Syria." At the same time, these actions are intended to intimidate Crimea's indigenous people. To date, fifteen Muslims have been taken into custody in the trumped-up Hizb ut-Tahrir case, of whom 14 are Crimean Tatars. Ruslan Zeytullayev, Rustem Vayitov, Nuri Primov and Ferat Sayfullayev were arrested in the winter of 2015. Next year they were followed by Amir-Usein Kuku, Vadym Siruk, Enver Bekirov and Muslim Aliev (in February 2016), Refat Dzheparov and Arsen Alimov (in April), Enver Mamutov, Rustem Abeltarov, Remzi Memetov and Zevri Abseitov (in May).