Group of Muslims from Hizb ut-Tahrir detained - Crimean Mufti Board
SIMFEROPOL. Oct 13 (Interfax) - Five Crimean Muslim Tatars were detained following an operation conducted by the Crimean branch of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on Wednesday, lawyer Emil Kurbedinov said.
"All five Crimean Tatars [earlier brought in for questioning] were detained. We are now waiting for the court to impose custodial terms for the period of the investigation," he wrote on his Facebook account on Wednesday evening.
Searches were conducted in the Muslims' houses in the village of Stroganovka and the area of Kamenka on the outskirts of Simferopol, videos posted online show.
The Crimean Mufti Board confirmed on Wednesday evening that the houses of five Muslims had been searched. "Individual persons" face accusations of arranging a terrorist organization's activity and taking part in it - Article 205.5 of the Russian Penal Code, it said.
"Law enforcement officers have said that literature, materials and flashcards storing materials of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is outlawed in Russia and has been designated as terrorist, were found during the search. Steps to establish cells of this party are prosecuted by law," Crimean Deputy Mufti Esadullakh Bairov was quoted as saying by the peninsula's Spiritual Muslim Board.
He called on Muslims to "stay vigilant" and take "measures in order to protect themselves and their family" from Hizb ut-Tahrir's influence.
Crimea's FSB, for its part, declined to comment on the operation to identify Muslims feeling sympathetic to Hizb ut-Tahrir, the main goal of which is to create a caliphate, a theocratic Islamic state throughout the entire Muslim world.
The Russian Supreme Court designated Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist organization in 2003.
