3.6.2. Persons with ties to Hizb ut-Tahrir

3.6.2. Persons with ties to Hizb ut-Tahrir

Hizb ut-Tahrir was one of 15 Islamic organisations whom the Supreme Court of Russia recognised as terrorist organisations, banning their activities in Russia in 2003.485 In its ruling, the Supreme Court cited the organisation’s ‘militant Islamist propaganda combined with intolerance towards other religions’ as justification for its designation as a terrorist organisation,486 yet it provided no information of Hizb ut-Tahrir involvement in actual terrorist activities487 such as ‘terrorist attacks, assaults, or crimes of violence.’488

Human rights organisation Memorial noted that ‘in recent years hundreds of Muslims’ were convicted on charges for involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, receiving ‘increasingly harsh sentences’ handed down. According to Memorial, in illegally annexed Crimea, the authorities use such prosecution ‘as a tool to suppress public solidarity and civic activism of local residents, especially Crimean Tatars’, who constitute the majority of those accused of ties with Hizb ut-Tahrir.489 OVD-Info noted that while several countries consider Hizb ut-Tahrir as an extremist or terrorist organisation, the actual reasons for criminal prosecution of alleged Hizb ut-Tahrir members in Russia ‘are not very clear’ and can also involve prosecution for local activism. The expert further noted that in the current situation in Russia it is difficult to establish which cases involve suppression of one’s religious freedoms and which cases do not.490

As reported by Memorial, as of early 2025, at least 276 persons were serving prison sentences for involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, while an additional 32 persons were held in pre-trial detention and another two under house arrest. Of 16 people detained on charges of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2024, 10 were reportedly detained in Crimea,491 and 4, all of whom were women, in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan.492 Memorial recognised 289 persons accused of ties to Hizb ut-Tahrir as political prisoners.493

As noted by Crimean Tatar Resource Centre, the criminal charges against perceived members of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Russia are built on testimonies of secret witnesses as opinions by experts collaborating with the FSB, with the evidence which comprise banned Islamic literature found during the searches, operational data of the FSB, and audio recordings in which persons discuss political and religious subjects.494