Mamaiusupov, given a 10-year sentence for taking part in three Hizb ut-Tahrir gatherings, is a political prisoner

In 2018 Farrukh Mamaiusupov, a Russian citizen, was sentenced to ten years in a strict regime prison colony by a military court for involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami under Article 205.5, Section 2, of the Russian Criminal Code (‘Participation in the activity of a terrorist organisation’). 

There is no evidence Farrukh Mamaiusupov committed or planned crimes of violence, still less acts of terrorism. Mamaiusupov’s guilt, in the view of the investigation and the courts, including the Supreme Court, lay in that, in the course of a month, he attended three meetings held by Hizb ut-Tahrir in Moscow at which the banned literature of this organisation and the methods of spreading its ideas were studied. This repeated the approach adopted by the authorities in dozens of criminal prosecutions of hundreds of Muslims throughout the country.

The charges are related solely to participation in the international religious organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, designated a terrorist organisation in 2003 by the Supreme Court of Russia. However, neither in the decision of the Supreme Court, nor in the materials of criminal cases investigated in Russia and the countries of the CIS, are there any concrete facts to show the organisation engages in terrorism or any other kind of violent activity.

The decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation contains three propositions about the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir. The first declares the purpose of Hizb ut-Tahrir to be the creation of a universal Caliphate; the second points to its advocacy of Islam on a large scale; and the third refers to the ban on the organisation’s activities in Uzbekistan and some other Arab countries. These formulae in themselves cannot serve as grounds for designation of the organisation as terrorist. We therefore consider the decision of the Supreme Court to designate Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist organisation unjustified, and that, consequently, there can be no grounds to bring charges of terrorism exclusively on the basis of membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Memorial Human Rights Centre, basing itself on the international Guide to the definition of ‘Political Prisoner’, declares Farrukh Mamaiusupov a political prisoner and demands his release.

Recognition of an individual as a political prisoner, or of a prosecution as politically motivated, does not imply that Memorial Human Rights Centre shares or approves the individual’s views, statements or actions. 

More information about this case is available on the website of Memorial Human Rights Centre. 

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