The Military Court of Appeal in Vlasikha near Moscow upheld the sentence of 17 years in a maximum-security colony for Imam Raif Fevziev from the temporarily occupied Crimea for “terrorism”.
This sentence was imposed by the Southern District Military Court in January 2023. The imam will spend the first 3 years in prison. After his release, he will have to observe a curfew for 1.5 years and not leave Crimea. He will also be obliged to report to the supervisory authority twice a month, according to Christians Against War.
Fevziev and 4 other Crimean Tatars were arrested after mass searches in Sevastopol in August 2021. The imam is accused of organizing the activities of a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code) and preparing for a violent change of power (Article 278 of the Criminal Code with the application of Part 1 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code) due to his alleged involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Although the Imam's health conditions worsened in the pre-trial detention center, he never received proper treatment.