The case of an imam accused of justification of terrorism was transferred to the court

The criminal case of Imam Makhmud Velitov, accused of public justification of terrorism, was transferred to the Moscow District District Military Court. This was reported by RAPSI with reference to the lawyer Dagira Khasavov.

Earlier, the accusation against Velitov wasre -qualified as “public calls for terrorist activity or public justification of terrorism” (part 1 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). Previously, the imam was accused of "public justification of terrorism, committed using the media" (part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code).

Mahmud Velitov was detained on July 11 and placed under house arrest, because, according to investigators, on September 23, 2013, a speech was publicly in the mosque, justifying the activities of activist Abdullah Gappaev, who was killed in Kizlyar. Gappaeva was suspected of involvement in the activities of Hizb Ut-Tahrir-an organization that is recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation and is prohibited, as human rights activists believe, unreasonably.

According to the lawyer Khasavov, his client did not talk about the indicated party either about the membership of Gappaev, since he did not have such information. The lawyer claims that the accused only conducted a religious rite regarding the deceased Muslim, namely, reading prayer in the name of forgiveness of the earthly sins of the deceased.

However, according to the investigation, according to the conclusion of a psychological linguistic forensic examination, this contains a “set of psychological and linguistic signs of justification of terrorist activity”. The defender of Imam, in turn, stated that the conclusions of this examination are falsified.