An activist of the Crimean Tatar national movement, Kyazim Ametov, has been held in a Simferopol remand centre without reason for 13 days, his lawyer Emil Kurbedinov has told LB.ua.
On 12 January, Simferopol's Kyivskyy district court ruled that the detention of four suspects in the "Vedzhiye Kashka case" – Bekir Degermendzhi, Asan Chapukh, Kyazim Ametov and Ruslan Trubach – should be expanded by two months. However, judge Mozhelyanskyy issued a resolution which did not include Kyazim Ametov's name, while all the mentioned data was that of Ernest Ametov. Ernest Ametov is a suspect in the Bakhchysaray "case of Hizb ut-Tahrir", who is accused of participation in a terrorist organization.
"This resolution is a proof that Crimean courts 'concoct' the case, I would not call it any other way. It goes to show that judges simply change names in previous resolutions without considering what defence lawyers say, without any legal analysis in the deliberations room. They simply copy the names and churn out such resolutions like a conveyor," Kurbedinov said.
Thus, under the law, Ametov's pretrial custody expired on 15 January. However, he was not released from the remand centre. Kurbedinov filed requests on the immediate release of his client with Russia-controlled local offices, including Simferopol's remand centre, the Crimean prosecutor's office and the Crimean penitentiary directorate, but has not received any answer yet.
Bekir Degermendzhi, Asan Chapukh, Kyazim Ametov and Ruslan Trubach were detained in Simferopol on 23 November 2017. They are accused of gross extortion. As they were being detained, Crimean Tatar national movement veteran Vedzhiye Kashka felt unwell. She died in an ambulance shortly afterwards.