16:08, 9 February 2017

Court leaves Imam Velitov under house arrest

Makhmud Velitov, the Imam of the Moscow "Yardyam" Mosque. Photo https://www.business-gazeta.ru/news/316541#9

Today, the Moscow City Court (MCC) has upheld the extension of house arrest of Makhmud Velitov, the Imam of the Moscow "Yardyam" Mosque, accused of public justification of terrorism in his words about Abdulla Gappaev, who was killed in Dagestan.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Imam Velitov was detained on July 11, 2016, and charged with public justification of terrorism, which investigators found in Imam’s statements of the Dagestani cleric Gappaev, who was killed on September 16, 2013, in Kizlyar.

According to his friends, Abdulla Gappaev had received threats from power agents. He was summoned to the police after the incident with a wedding cortege in Kizlyar on April 27, 2013. According to eyewitnesses, power agents stopped the cortege with Islamic flags and beat up the ceremony participants. The MIA called them extremists.

On December 22, 2016, the Butyrka Moscow Court extended the house arrest of Imam Velitov until 27 February. This decision was appealed against; and the appeal was rejected today by the MCC.

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