The European Court of Human Rights will consider an appeal by an Uzbek man convicted in Russia for membership in the Islamic organization Hizb ut Tahrir al-Islami, which is considered a terrorist group in Russia.
Yusup Kasymukhanov was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2004 for being a member of Hizb ut Tahrir, an international organization which seeks to unite all Muslim countries into a unitary Islamic state.
The Russian Supreme Court included the movement into the list of terrorist groups in 2003, on the grounds that it had links to radical Islamist groups in the troubled North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya.
Though the organization says on its website that it seeks to achieve its goals through peaceful means, it is outlawed in many Islamic states. However, it legally operates in the United States, United Kingdom, France and other European countries.
Kasymukhanov, who lost his appeal to the Supreme Court, now serves his sentence in the northwestern Russian republic of Komi. He says he never tried to incited violence or cruelty while being the organization's member and denies being involved into any terrorist activity.
He claims that Russian authorities violated his rights for the freedom of religion, speech and peaceful assembly, guaranteed by the articles 9, 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
He also says that the Supreme Court ruling was invalid at the moment when he was convicted, as it was not officially published.
MOSCOW, July 13 (RIA Novosti)
