Two activists accused the Kremlin on Friday of encouraging prosecutors to target Muslims on trumped up charges of terrorism and extremism, and said the abuse could lead to anti-government unrest.
Sergei Komkov, president of the All-Russian Education Fund, said the government was trying to pin social ills on innocent Muslims and warned it could backfire against Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
“There threatens to be a powerful explosion of public discontent in the next three or four years that could, if not stopped, lead to a change in the political leadership,” Komkov told a news conference attended by prominent rights activists.
Komkov said authorities in Russia’s southern regions were increasingly convicting observant Muslims on trumped up charges of terrorism and extremism, in an effort to satisfy what he said were quotas from the central government.
Long terms in Russia’s abusive prison system are turning those wrongfully convicted against society, said respected rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group.
Prisons are becoming a production line for criminals and others with a grudge against the authorities, creating a threat to public order, Alexeyeva said at the news conference.
Approximately 20 million of Russia’s 142 million citizens are Muslim. Most live in the southern Caucasus provinces, including Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, and in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan near the Volga River.
Experts and activists said prosecutors began unfairly targeting Muslims after Moscow’s Dubrovka theater siege in 2002, and the Beslan school hostage seizure in 2004. Islamic militants were involved in both terrorist attacks, which killed some 500 people.
Komkov and activists said hundreds of investigators work for police and counterterrorism units created by then-president Putin after the attacks, and said they continued to prey on the innocent to justify their paychecks.
Isa Betsiyev, 40, a businessman and Muslim from the city of Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, said he had been harassed repeatedly by the counterterrorism branch of the Federal Security Services, or FSB, the KGB’s successor agency.
“They burst into my home in masks and flash some card at me. They collect my books [on Islam] and call me an extremist,” Betsiyev told the news conference.
Betsiyev said his wife’s workplace was stormed by masked FSB officers a day after she complained of harassment, and her employers were accused of aiding extremists.
Komkov said Betsiyev’s story was typical. Popular ignorance of Islam as a peaceful religion helps authorities scapegoat Muslims, the advocates said.
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
The latest batch from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s e-mails illustrates the extraordinary scope of his contacts with powerful people, ranging from a top Trump adviser to Britain’s ex-prince Andrew. The US House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on trying to force release of evidence gathered on Epstein by law enforcement over the years — including the identities of the men suspected of participating in his alleged sex trafficking ring. However, a slew of e-mails released this week have already opened new windows to the extent of Epstein’s network. These include multiple references to US President Donald
CHARGES: The former president, who maintains his innocence, was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for a failed coup bid, as well as an assassination plot Far-right former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is running out of options to avoid prison, after judges on Friday rejected his appeal against a 27-year sentence for a botched coup bid. Bolsonaro lost the 2022 elections and was convicted in September for his efforts to prevent Brazlian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking power after the polls. Prosecutors said the scheme — which included plans to assassinate Lula and a top Brazilian Supreme Court judge — failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass. A panel of Supreme Court judges weighing Bolsonaro’s appeal all voted to uphold
RSS