Kyiv protests against convictions of four Crimean Tatars in Russia

"The cynicism of the occupant state: they released Umerov from hospital and at the same time illegally convicted four Crimean Tatars to 7 and 5 years in prison... We express our protest against the illegal verdicts. We demand the Russian Federation stop repression against Crimean Tatars," the Foreign Ministry's press secretary Mariana Betsa wrote on Twitter. On September 7, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don passed a guilty verdict on four Crimean Tatars who are accused of ties with the Hizb-ut-Tahrir organization. The court sentenced Ruslan Zeitullayev to seven years and gave five-year sentences to Ferat Saifullayev, Rustem Vaitov and Yuriy Primov. All the convicts will serve time in a general penitentiary.