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Russian Authorities Fabricate Terrorism Cases Against Muslims — Rights Group Leading Russian rights activists have accused authorities of fabricating criminal cases and falsely prosecuting people on Islamic-extremism charges in an attempt to show successes in fighting terrorism, the Associated Press news agency reports. The campaign, launched after September’s school hostage seizure, targets mostly Russian Muslims as well as Uzbeks, Tajiks and Kyrgyz residing in Russia, Vitaly Ponomaryov, head of the Central Asia program for the rights group Memorial said Tuesday. Activists accused Russian agencies of illegally allowing Uzbek security officers to operate on Russian territory and to detain suspects. “If one fights against terrorism ... by placing innocent people in custody, the number of terrorists and extremists will not decrease, and most likely it will encourage recruitment of additional forces into their ranks,” Memorial activist Svetlana Gannushkina said. A spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office declined to respond to the accusations, saying a statement would be issued later. Russia has been hit by a series of terrorist attacks in recent years, including a simultaneous bombing of two passenger jets, a suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station and the hostage seizure at the school in Beslan. Gannushkina said Russian and Uzbek authorities had detained 14 people in the central Russian city of Ivanovo in June on charges of involvement in the May unrest in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan. Uzbek troops violently suppressed an uprising in Andijan on May 13, later calling it a revolt by Islamic radicals. Since then, Uzbek authorities have been seeking the extradition of suspects from Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Gannushkina contended, however, that only one detainee was in Andijan during the uprising, while the rest were acquaintances or business partners. One detainee is a Russian citizen, while another one is a Kyrgyz citizen who traveled to Ivanovo from Turkey to trade textiles, she said. Citing unnamed officials close to the investigation, Ponomaryov also said that Uzbekistan issued extradition requests nearly one month after the men had been detained, meaning they were held in custody unlawfully. Ponomaryov said a Memorial study conducted in some of Russia’s 89 regions showed at least 23 extremism cases involving some 80 people have been fabricated since last fall. But he said the real number is estimated to be much higher. Yelena Ryabinina, an activist with Civil Assistance, a group advocating refugees’ and migrants’ rights, said a man in the Siberian city of Nizhnevartovsk was sentenced to two years for being a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic organization outlawed in Russia. The man was arrested after he sent open letters to Prosecutor General and Chairman of the Supreme Court saying he believed Hizb ut-Tahrir was a peaceful organization, she said. Prosecutors later appealed for a harder sentence and the Supreme Court ordered a retrial. Gannushkina warned that such a campaign was highly dangerous for a country, in which approximately 20 percent of the population describe themselves as Muslims. |
