Press Release
Hizb ut Tahrir Was and Continues to be an Islamic Political Party While Russia is a Despotic State!
(Translated)

On 11 December 2014, Russia's Federal Supreme Court has considered the appeal in the case of four members of the Islamic group Hizb ut Tahrir, who were sentenced to prison for periods ranging from 7 to 11 years on charges of preparing to seize power in Russia. After studying the case, the Supreme Court decided to remove all the charges for offences under Article 282 of the Criminal Code (Incitement of Ethnic Hatred or Enmity,) due to the far duration of the crime. However it upheld the long prison sentences as they are. It also upheld the charge against Azizbek Inamov, Shamil Ismailov, Saypula Kurbanov, and Zikrullokhon Rakhmonkhodzhaev, for attempting a forced seizure of power; this accusation was kept unchanged.

The criminalization of this charge that they have concluded is not only in violation the laws of Russia, but also in violation of all proper principle, as stated in our press release dated 31/06/2014, under the title "11 years imprisonment for calling to Islam". We also indicated that all who ever knows anything about the work of Hizb ut Tahrir realizes the invalidity of these trials and how brazen these convictions of the attempt to seize power by force in Russia. And we add that such charges will only harm the existing governance and not the party that the whole world knows. Russia's violation of its laws in its war against Islam has become one of the milestones in its policy and therefore all what it will gain from this policy is the absolute hostility to the Islamic Ummah.

Hizb ut Tahrir was and will remain an Islamic political party, and its members are carrying Islam. While Russia was and still is a despotic State, and because of its inability to carry out ideological struggle, we find it resort to methods of repression against its citizens. It is obvious that the judge recognizes that the relevant issue is a political issue involving a war on Islam, and he is compelled to obtain ready verdicts in advance from others. This demonstrates the Supreme Court's unwillingness to hear the facts and defense, and the approval of charges built on clear lies.

We remind that the only legal basis for the prosecution of members of our party is the Supreme Court's illegal decision in the year 2003, which led our party to find itself on the list of terrorist organizations. Russia has thus become the first and even the world's only to hit rock bottom in its declared war and slander on Hizb ut Tahrir.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

in Russia