23 June 2023, 23:12
Public prosecutor requests 19 years of imprisonment for defendants in Dagestani journalist Gadjiev’s case
A public prosecutor requested court to sentence Abdulmumin Gadjiev, Abubakar Rizvanov, and Kemal Tambiev, who were accused of financing terrorism, to 19 years of imprisonment.
The “Caucasian Knot” has also reported that the completion of the judicial investigation in the case against Abdulmumin Gadjiev, Kemal Tambiev, and Abubakar Rizvanov was announced on May 18. The third examination, which the public prosecutor insisted on, did not find any calls for illegal actions in Abdulmumin Gadjiev’s publications.
Journalist Abdulmumin Gadjiev, as well as Abubakar Rizvanov, the head of the “Ansar” charitable foundation, and Kemal Tambiev, have been taken into custody since June 2019 on the charge of financing terrorism. According to the investigators’ version, the defendants raised 68 million roubles and 200,000 US dollars for terrorists under the pretext of building mosques and helping poor Muslims. The investigators connects the defendants with Israil Akhmednabiev, a Dagestani preacher and a founder of the “Mukhadjirun” Islamic Foundation, also known as Abu Umar Sasitlinsky. The defendants plead not guilty.
At the today’s hearing in the Southern District Military Court, the public prosecutor has requested the court to sentence each of the defendants to 19 years of imprisonment, the Dagestani weekly newspaper “Chernovik” (Rough Draft) reports.
“The public prosecutor believes that we deserve such a punishment, as during the trial, our participation in the activities of the terrorist organizations “Islamic State (IS)*, the “Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan”*, and the Supreme Military Majlisul Shura of the United Forces of the Mujahideen of the Caucasus”* was fully proved, as well as the organization of their financing by us," said Abdulmumin Gadjiev as quoted in a Telegram channel.
According to Abdulmumin Gadjiev, he is charged with publishing articles in the newspaper “Chernovik” and transferring 16,000 roubles to an IS* member. “As if there were no three examinations of my articles, none of which revealed anything illegal in them, and even more so related to terrorism,” emphasized Abdulmumin Gadjiev.
Colleagues of Abdulmumin Gadjiev, an editor of the newspaper “Chernovik”, consider his case an act of political persecution and regularly hold pickets in his support in Makhachkala.
*The organization is recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia by the court.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 22, 2023 at 05:43 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: Caucasian Knot
