Participants in a rally against the oppression of Muslims in Udmurtia summoned for questioning

Participants of the March 6 rally against the oppression of Muslims in Sarapul (Udmurtia) were summoned for questioning by the police. In a statement sent on this occasion to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, the Commission for the Protection of Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, it is reported that "throughout the whole week, police officers visited the houses of the protesters and summoned them for interrogations."

On March 16, a second picket was held, during which the assembled people began to be seized by the police and forcefully pushed into the car "the assembled people began to be grabbed by the police and forcefully pushed into the car." Among the detainees was a 16-year-old teenager. The people were kept in the GOVD for more than four hours, after which "a protocol was drawn up and subpoenas were issued, which has been repeatedly postponed due to the lack of corpus delicti."

On April 6, Islam.Ru reported on another statement by Sarapul Muslims sent to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, the Commission for the Protection of Human Rights and other organizations and bodies. This time we are talking about the illegal detention and interrogation of two minor children by the police. The document states that Rustam and Ilnar Stepanov "were illegally detained and taken out of their apartment, and then interrogated for more than 2 hours without their parents and without a lawyer."

“From the moment the children were detained, there has been a change in their behavior, they talk (in their sleep) at night, they show increased nervousness, the children seem to have been replaced. The parents were forced to see a doctor, and fears of a violation of the children’s mentality were confirmed,” the statement says. “There is a fact of violation of Articles 28 and 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as Article 11 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

In response to their appeals on this issue to the prosecutor's office of the city of Sarapul, the Republican prosecutor's office, to the deputy of the Sarapul City Duma, the Stepanovs received explanations that "it was not an interrogation, but a nice conversation." The Stepanovs claim that they are being pressured by law enforcement officials to stop filing complaints. On March 11, police officers again came to their apartment, asking the mother and her child questions about the Muslims of Sarapul and about the picket that had taken place on March 6.

Sources

• Participants of picket in defense of Muslims summoned for questioning by police // Islam.ru. 2005. 4 April.
• Udmurt police interrogate underage Muslims // There. April 6th.
• DOCUMENT: Appeal of the Muslims of the city of Sarapul, Udmurt Republic in connection with the growing number of cases of persecution of Muslims by law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation // Portal-Credo.ru. 2005. April 8.