Ex-teacher of the Russian Islamic University sentenced to six and a half years in prison

The Privolzhsky District Court of Kazan has appointed Gabdrakhman Naumov, a former imam and lecturer at the Russian Islamic University, to six and a half years in prison. It is reported by "Kommersant".

Naumov was found guilty under articles on financing and organizing the activities of an extremist organization (part 1 of article 282.3 of the Criminal Code and part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). The court considered him involved in the creation in Tatarstan of a cell of the banned organization Nurcular. The prosecutor requested that the man be sentenced to eight years and five months in prison.

According to the lawyer of the defendant Ruslan Nagiyev, the accusation against Naumov is based on gossip. “We consider the accusation absurd. It was based only on the testimony of some witnesses, one of whom is classified. However, they all talk about Naumov as a member of Nurcular only from the words of other people who were not even interrogated. These witnesses have never heard directly about Naumov, Nurcular and the activities of Said Nursi,” the defender said in a conversation with Idel.Realii.

The criminal case against Naumov was opened in March 2020. According to investigators, since 2015, he allegedly was “the leader in the structure of the international religious extremist association Nurcular”, “organized the activities of conspiratorial groups” and held “secret campaign meetings” at his home, and “campaign classes” in the mosques of the republic. Since the spring of last year, Naumov has been in a pre-trial detention center.

• The Nurcular organization, which allegedly aims to establish Muslim religious rule based on Sharia, was declared extremist and banned by the Russian Supreme Court in 2008.
• The SOVA Center considers the ban on the Nurcular Association unlawful. According to human rights activists, there is no such organization in Russia, there are only individual believers. According to the center's website, they are unreasonably persecuted for studying the books of the Turkish theologian Said Nursi.