17:38, 4 September 2019

Investigation into case on involvement of Dagestani residents in IS completed

Confiscated firearms. Photo http://dagestan.sledcom.ru/news/item/1386685/

The Prosecutor's Office approved an indictment in the case on involvement of four Buynaksk residents in a terrorist organization, investigators reported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Samat Tatarkhanov, Daniyal Zagirov, Ramazan Zakaryaev, and Ali Ramazanov are accused of illicit arms trafficking and organizing a terrorist grouping. Daniyal Zagirov was also accused of public calls for extremism. Relatives of the arrested persons declared their innocence, and the defence demanded from the investigators to submit a video record with the suspects swearing allegiance to the IS (ISIL, a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, – note of the "Caucasian Knot") in order to prove it had been staged.

Human rights defenders reported that all four defendants retracted their confessions. The young people complained that after their detention they were tortured with electric current and then taken to the forest. There, being at gunpoint and in front of the camera, they were forced to swear allegiance to the leader of the "Islamic State", a terrorist organization banned in Russia by the court.

According to the investigators, in January 2017, the defendants created a terrorist grouping and were plotting terror acts and attacks on law enforcers in Buynaksk. The defendants face severe punishment up to life imprisonment.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 4, 2019 at 09:45 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.