Lawsuits to be filed against violation of search procedure and discrimination of Muslims, says RAMU lawyer

Following a search in the Islamic Cultural Center of Kyiv that took place on on March 6, a press conference was held with the participation of Said Ismagilov, the Mufti of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine "Ummah", MP Refat Chubarov, the chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Seyran Arifov, the chairman of the All-Ukrainian Association of Public Organizations "Alraid" and others.

“There are all reasons to consider such actions of the law-enforcers systematic, since this is the fourth instance in the last two years,” said the Mufti Said Ismagilov, stressing that previously searches had taken place in Vinnytsia, Sumy, and Zhytomyr. Mufti called yesterday's search “the last drop”.

MP Refat Chubarov, the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, came up to the rostrum with another copy of “Allowed and Forbidden in Islam,” urging everyone who wants to carry out a search in his office to look for this particular book from tomorrow on, because it contains nothing extremist.

The Islamic Cultural Center stresses that the withdrawn “extremist books were planted to them”. In total, according to the protocol of the investigation, on March 6, 62 copies of the literature were seized.

Lawyer of the RAMU Ummah Olga Bashey notes that there are grounds to claim several violations of procedural norms committed by law enforcement officers.

“We are confident that the books found which are allegedly extremist literature have been planted to us, which is visible on the video from our surveillance cameras,” she added. “Our books always bear the seal of NGO “Alraid” or ICC, and therefore the books found cannot be ours ... We plan to file several lawsuits at once in relation to violation of the procedure of search and discrimination of Muslims.”