FSB Searches Islamist Leader’s Home

Federal Security Service (FSB) agents have searched the home of Geidar Dzhemal, head of Russia’s Islamic Committee, for alleged “extremist literature,” Gazeta.ru reported on Tuesday.

Dzhemal said the search was conducted on Sunday morning by five FSB agents who failed to name even one “extremist” title they were looking for.

His lawyers and official witnesses watched the agents very closely to make sure they “did not plant anything.”

Then they demanded to see his computer, threatening otherwise to seize it, Dzhemal said, adding that they found nothing.

He said no criminal charges had been filed against him and that the whole thing was “an act of intimidation.”

“That’s a new trend we have – the creation of a police state,” Dzhemal said.

Dzhemal is known as a fervent critic of the recent “extremism” statute in Russia’s Penal Code and campaigner for the release of all political prisoners in Russia.

In 2009, Maxim Mishchenko, a State Duma member from the ruling United Russia party, demanded that the Islamic Committee be declared an extremist organization and a criminal case opened against Dzhemal.

Geidar Dzhemal is also a member of the opposition Leftist Front coordination council.

 

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