In Bashkortostan, a father with many children was forced by threats to admit his participation in At-Takfir wal-Hijra

The Human Rights Center “Memorial” published an appeal from a resident of Bashkortostan, Ruslan Ishmitov, who asked President Vladimir Putin for protection in connection with the persecution of participation in the activities of the radical Islamic organization At-Takfir wal-Hijra, recognized as extremist in Russia.

Ishmitov said that on May 25, 2021, unknown men broke into his house, where at that moment his wife and young children were with him, some of them were wearing masks and with weapons. One of the intruders showed some paper, saying that it was a search warrant, but did not let Ishmitov get acquainted with it.

During the search, the security forces seized phones and documents, including those belonging to Ishmitov's children. While the law enforcers examined the dwelling, Ishmitov was interrogated. The man said that he was shouted at and threatened in the presence of children. “Say what I need, your fate and the fate of your family depend on it,” Ishmitov quotes a security official named Mark.

After the search, a resident of Bashkortostan was taken for interrogation to the FSB in Ufa. In the absence of a lawyer, Ishmitov was forced to sign a prepared interrogation protocol. The FSB officers said that if a man does not plead guilty under the article on participation in the activities of an extremist organization, then he will be “locked up in a psychiatric hospital”, and his family will be “taken up”. Investigative actions continued until night, Ishmitov was not given food or water. Already almost at night, the man was provided with a lawyer, however, even with him, the threats continued. Ishmitov was again allowed to sign the documents without the possibility of familiarization.

In an address to the president, Ishmitov stressed that he pleaded guilty in a criminal case because of fear for his family: his wife and six children.

Earlier, another defendant in the same case, Ildar Abdurakhmanov, addressed Putin, and his letter was also published on the HRC Memorial website.

• Al-Takfir Wal-Hijra is a radical Islamist organization created in Egypt in the 1970s and operating against the governments of Islamic countries. In 2010, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the organization as extremist and banned its activities in the country. Vitaly Ponomarev, a member of the Memorial Human Rights Center , points out that experts doubt the existence of the organization, since information about it is based "on certain sources of special services, the reliability of which is unclear."