Week-ending 23 April 2021
This week an unknown number of alleged supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic group banned as ‘terrorist’ in Russia since 2003 by a ruling of the Supreme Court, were arrested in Kemerovo and Novosibirsk. On 21 April the FSB said those detained had “carried out anti-constitutional activities based on the doctrine of the creation of a world caliphate.” Memorial Human Rights Centre has designated persons held in custody or imprisoned on account of their membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir as ‘political prisoners’ on the grounds that the organisation does not advocate or commit acts of violence.
RFE/RL, 23 April 2021: Security authorities in the Siberian cities of Kemerovo and Novosibirsk say they have apprehended an unspecified number of alleged supporters of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group. Human rights groups have criticized the government’s “abuse” of counterterrorism laws and the use of “secret witnesses” and other methods in prosecuting critics and religious groups to silence dissent. The Federal Security Service (FSB) said on April 21 that alleged members of the group that was banned in the country in 2003 “carried out anti-constitutional activities based on the doctrine of the creation of a world caliphate.” Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is also banned in Central Asia, says its movement is peaceful. The FSB did not say how many suspects have been apprehended. Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global organization based in London that seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate, but it says its methods for reaching that goal are peaceful.
