Human rights activist Bakhrom Khamroev was searched and interrogated by FSB officers

On September 29, FSB officers searched the apartment of Bakhrom Khamroev, an activist from the Memorial human rights center and head of the Yordam (Help) organization, in Moscow. After the search, he was taken for interrogation to the FSB department, where the human rights activist was held until the evening.

Khamroev told OVD-Info that the search began at six o'clock in the morning - the FSB officers rang at the door, showed documents and a warrant. “Everything was fine ... But the whole house, of course, was turned over. They took a phone, computer, tablet, books. They explained that I was passing as a witness,” says the human rights activist. As he understood, this is a criminal case against two citizens of Uzbekistan, refugees who sought asylum from the Russian authorities. These people are suspected of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir (an organization that is recognized as a terrorist organization in the Russian Federation).

“Why do you help extremists, why does Memorial recognize them as political prisoners,” employees asked me. They were almost called enemies of the state,” says Khamroev. He explained that Hizb ut-Tahrir does not support, only protects people from injustice - falsified criminal cases, helps to deal with migration issues. Several books about Hizb ut-Tahrir were confiscated from the human rights activist, one copy each. He needed them for work. The FSB officers were interested in who handed over the books, the human rights activist replied that he had received them by mail.

“We are against terrorists. My people regularly suffer — I try to support people,” says Khamroev. The human rights activist was released from the FSB department at about nine o'clock in the evening. Before that, they took fingerprints, they said that they would still call.

Bahrom Khamroev has been involved in human rights activities in Russia since 1992. In recent years, he has been most often involved in defending the rights of individuals who have been charged with Islamic radicalism and other allegations of a religious nature. Khamroev helped in Russia in solving the problems of labor migrants from the countries of Central Asia, cites the information from Ozodlik radio.