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May 23, 2006
Siberia: Five Islamists Arrested
The group Hizb ut-Tahrir was formally banned in February 2003 in Russia, branded as a terror organisation. Currently there are 29 members of this group in prison in Russia, most of whom are serving long sentences. On April 27 another Hizb ut-Tahrir activist, Sardorbek Siddikov, was sentenced to a year's jail by a Moscow court for disseminating literature connected with the group.
As we reported earlier, Hizb ut-Tahrir, which was founded in Jerusalem in 1953, aims to establish a new "Caliphate" to replace the last Ottoman Caliphate which was disbanded in 1924. The group aims to destroy governments, and is therefore banned in most Middle Eastern nations.
Despite is claims to be peaceful, it actively promotes conflict with the non-Muslims, whom it labels kufr (kaffir). Its website states that it "also aims to bring back the Islamic guidance for mankind and to lead the Ummah into a struggle with Kufr, its systems and its thoughts so that Islam encapsulates the world."
In Denmark it is openly anti-semitic, and campaigns for Muslims to fight western forces in Iraq. It is also active in Australia, in Bangladesh, in Britain (where it may soon be banned) and in Indonesia it is involved with campaigns to close down churches.
News today from Pravda states that five members of Hizb ut-Tahrir were detained in Siberia. The Federal Security Service made the announcement today. The individuals were taken into custody on May 11. The FSS would give no further details, saying they did not want to prejudice their investigations.
The five were arrested at an apartment in the city of Tobolsk, states an NGO called the Civic Assistance Committee, which claime the men were forced to lay face down on the floor for seven hours during the arrest operation.
One of the men escaped while being removed from the apartment, and a few days later two of the suspects were set free, on condition that they did not leave Tobolsk.
The two remaining individuals are being held in Tobolsk jail. They face charges of belonging to an extremist group, as well as those of creating a criminal group.
The Civic Assistance Committee states that criminal investigations were being carried out on suspected Hizb ut-Tahrir members in Tatarstan, Samara and Orenburg.
48 people have been convicted of belonging to the banned group, but the NGO states that none of these has been found guilty of committing violent acts or actual terrorism.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 23, 2006 10:31 AM
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