The beginning of the week in Russia was marked by a high-profile verdict in the «Network» case — members of an anarchist group who did not commit any terrorist acts were sentenced to 6 to 18 years in prison for terrorism (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=38047).
But the week’s repressive news did not end there. Below is a list of only those news items that concern Muslim regions.
In Dagestan, security forces raided the human rights organization «Legal Initiative» and searched its lawyers, including the office of lawyer Malik Abubakarova.
In Ingushetia, the civil project «Emergency» announced the suspension of its activities due to continued pressure from security forces. The project was collecting items to donate to Ingush political prisoners. Meanwhile, this week there were more candidates for this role — searches were conducted at the homes of Ingush protest participant Yunus Vedzhizhiev and his relatives, and Zakri Bopkhoev was detained for participating in the same protests and a criminal case was opened against him.
In Bashkortostan, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the completion of the investigation of Bashkir opposition leader Airat DilMukhametov. Based on his publications and speeches on Facebook and YouTube, he is charged with incitement to violate Russia’s territorial integrity, extremism, justifying terrorism, and financing extremism — because people sent him money to pay his lawyer and provide him with food using his mother’s bank card. Lawyers predict that DilMukhametov will receive a sentence similar to that of the participants in the «Network» case. Meanwhile, when Leonid Nikitinsky, a representative of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, arrived in Bashkortostan to study DilMukhametov’s case, local authorities refused to discuss it with him. The arguments of the local authorities, who claimed that they could not put pressure on the investigation and the court, were called «excuses» by Nikitinsky — as the whole country knows how «independent» the latter are in Russia. At the same time, in the same Bashkortostan, the consideration of the case declaring the organization «Bashkort» extremist is scheduled for February 22 in the Supreme Court. In the future, dozens of people may be affected by this, as is currently happening in Ingushetia.
The cleansing of public space in the Muslim regions of Russia continues, as it does throughout the country.