19:26, 5 November 2015

HRC "Memorial" recognizes Bagir Kazikhanov as political prisoner

Human rights defenders demand to release Bagir Kazikhanov, a native of Dagestan, sentenced for reading books of Said Nursi.

Said Nursi (1878-1960) was a Turkish philosopher and politician. After his death, followers of Said Nursi founded a movement "Nurdzhular" to be engaged in educational activities in the Islamic world and promote the ideas of Said Nursi, contained in 14 volumes of his works under the common title of "Risale-i-Nur". The books of Said Nursi were included in the all-Russian list of printed and other materials recognized as extremist by the court.

In this February, Bagir Kazikhanov, a Muslim from Ulyanovsk, was sentenced to 3.5 years of imprisonment in a common-security penal colony on the charge of "organizing the activities of a banned religious association."

According to investigators, Bagir Kazikhanov founded in Ulyanovsk a unit of "the movement 'Nurdzhular', a religious organization based on the teachings of Turkish theologian Said Nursi Bediuzzaman and banned in Russia." In the same criminal case, Alexander Melentiev and Stepan Kudryashov were sentenced to conditional imprisonment.

"The Human Rights Centre (HRC) 'Memorial' demands to immediately release Bagir Kazikhanov and rehabilitate him and other defendants in his case, as well as stop banning religious materials not propagating violence," states the press release disseminated by the HRC "Memorial".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.