Moscow City Court sentenced four members of Hizb ut Tahrir falsely accused of preparation for the overthrow of the Russian constitutional order on terms ranging from 7 to 11 years of imprisonment in a penal colony.

The natives of Central Asia, Azizbek Inamov and Zikrullokhon Rakhmonkhodzhaev, were sentenced to 11 and 7 years of imprisonment respectively, and Dagestan Doctors Saypula Kurbanov and Shamil Ismailov to 8 years of colony. They were convicted of the involvement of persons in the commission of the actions that were aimed at a forced seizure of power and forced change of the constitutional order (Part 1 Article 205.5 CC RF), and also of the preparation of a forced seizure of power and forced change of the constitutional order (Part 1 Art.30 and Art. 278 CC RF). In addition, all were convicted of an extremist activity (Art. 282.2 CC), and Rakhmonkhodzhaev was yet found guilty of acquisition and storage of the ammunition planted to him during a search (Part 1 Article 222 CC RF).

All that the prosecution has proven in the court is the fact that the arrested are indeed the members of Hizb ut Tahrir, the political party that calls the Muslims to the resumption of the Islamic way of life by reestablishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate" and also that they indeed study religion and are concerned about the problems of the whole Islamic Ummah. The evidence for this is the so-called "wiretapping" and video of the arrested Muslims' meetings and also the videos from the Islamic conference hold in Moscow hotel "Salyut" in August 2012.

On these materials, which were presented to the court as the evidence of the defendants' "guilt" one could see that they spent hours talking about Islam, its history and practice, there was not any word about the plans on the overthrow of the state system. And the video from the Islamic conference demonstrates only that they openly discussed the problems of the Islamic Ummah and the ways to solve them. The defendants themselves did not deny that, and after their arrest, they stated that they were the members of the Islamic political party Hizb ut Tahrir. The video materials prove only the political, but not the violent activities of the party. Even the false witnesses could not prove the accusations that the defendants prepared the armed seizure of power, as all their arguments were comprehensively refuted by the defense.

However despite the fact that during the trial the falsity and absurdity of the charges of Hizb ut Tahrir's members in an attempt to overthrow the constitutional order became very obvious, the judge of Moscow City Court Elena Guchenkova nevertheless found all the defendants guilty. Thus the Russian court once again demonstrates its utter dependence on FSS, which obsessively continues to convince the public that Hizb ut Tahrir's members are terrorists, trying to seizure power in the Russian Federation.

In the court not only the defendants but also their lawyers said that Hizb ut Tahrir was a political party. The program manager of Human Rights Center "Memorial" Vitaliy Ponamarev studying the party activities since 1990s was questioned as a witness. He said that he considered Hizb ut Tahrir a political party that did not use violence for achieving its political aims.

He also talked about the sources of that knowledge. They are four: first of all it is literature of the party; a huge collection of sentences and other documents related to the criminal cases towards the members of Hizb ut Tahrir both in Russia and in the CIS countries (most of all are from Uzbekistan - there are thousands of the convicted); interviewing the members of the organization from Kazakhstan in the east to the west of London, which also makes it possible to compare the data and draw conclusions; journalists' articles and serious researches, published in the West, under the auspices of international organizations.

According to Ponamarev, the propaganda work of Hizb ut Tahrir indeed leads to the establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate", at first in one country, and then it will spread. Herewith the countries are clearly divided into the Islamic world, inside which Madgal - the territory of the former and future Islamic state is allocated, and the un-Islamic world. Respectively, in the un-Islamic countries the practical task of the establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate" is not assigned. This task is even not in all countries of the Islamic world.

He also said that he was present at the Islamic conference as a guest in Moscow hotel "Salyut" in August 2012. "I must say that the entrance to the room was monitored by law enforcement agencies, they forced to write down passport data of each incoming. I think that under these circumstances it is difficult to say that this was some secret event of some secret extremist organization... Among the guests one could clearly distinguish the representatives of several mosques, there were just young guys both the citizens of Russia and CIS citizens", - noted Ponamarev.

From all this it follows that all who ever knows anything about the purpose and method of Hizb ut Tahrir, the lie of the secret services towards the party becomes evident. This would be obvious to the entire society, if the secret services did not base in their lies on unscrupulous members of the media.

In this connection, referring to the Russian media, we would like to remind about journalistic ethics, the so-called "code of honor" where first of all the veracity of information, its accuracy and objectivity are mentioned. We address to the representatives of the Islamic media by the words of Allah (swt):

((يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن جَاءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَإٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوا أَن تُصِيبُوا قَوْمًا بِجَهَالَةٍ فَتُصْبِحُوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَادِمِينَ))

"O you who have believed, if there comes to you a disobedient one with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful" [49:6].

The lawyers of all convicts have already announced that the sentence is unreasonable and they will challenge the decision of the court.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Russia