In St. Petersburg, 10 people were detained on suspicion of involvement in Nurcular

On March 3, 2013, the press service of the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region announced an arrest in St. Petersburg as part of an investigation into a case under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 (organizing the activities of an extremist organization) ten people on suspicion of involvement in the activities of the banned organization "Nurcular".

Among the detainees are five citizens of the Russian Federation, four citizens of Azerbaijan and one citizen of Turkmenistan. On March 2, 2013, searches were carried out at their place; it is reported that during the searches prohibited religious literature was seized. There is no information yet about what preventive measure was chosen for the detainees.

Let us remind you that we do not consider it legitimate to ban the works of Said Nursi, which do not contain any extreme statements, as well as the Nurcular organization, which did not exist in Russia. We oppose the persecution of individual believers who study Nursi's books.

On March 4, 2013, it became known that nine out of ten detainees were released from custody.

On March 5, 2013, it became known that the Nevsky District Court of St. Petersburg arrested Russian citizen Shirazi Bekirov, who had been detained in the case until April 25, 2013. Bekirov's arrest is illegal, since the arrest of suspects under Art. 282.2 is possible only in the presence of exceptional circumstances, which are not present in this case.

On April 4, 2013, as part of the investigation of the case, a series of searches were carried out, during which religious literature was seized, including books by Said Nursi, which were recognized as extremist. On the same day, two Azerbaijani citizens were interrogated at the Russian FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.

On July 2, 2013, information appeared that Bekirov’s arrest had been extended until August 2013. In relation to three suspected foreign citizens, a decision was made that they were undesirable to stay in the Russian Federation, and they were expelled from the country.

Sources

• Ten Islamist extremists were detained in St. Petersburg // Lenta.ru. 2013. March 3.
• Timofey Tumashevich. Those detained in St. Petersburg on suspicion of extremism were released from custody // BaltInfo. 2013. March 4.
• A person was arrested in connection with the activities of the extremist organization "Nurcular" in St. Petersburg // Interfax-Religion. 2013. March 5.
• Vitaly Ponomarev. In St. Petersburg, a suspect in the Nurcular case was illegally placed in a pre-trial detention center // Human Rights Protection. Memorial. 2013. March 5.
• Searches took place in St. Petersburg in connection with the case of the extremist organization “Nurcular” // ITAR-TASS. 2013. April 5.
• The defendant in the case of the extremist organization “Nurcular” will remain in custody in St. Petersburg until August // Fontanka.ru. 2013. July 2.