Experts treat oath of Dagestani residents to IS as manipulations

An examination of the video depicting the oath given by four residents of Buynaksk to the leader of the "Islamic State" (IS), a terrorist organization banned in Russia by the court), has shown that they were affected by an off-screen manipulator, the defendants' advocate has stated. Experts from Saint Petersburg found violations in the work of their Dagestan colleagues, who failed to find signs of coercion in the video, the defence claims.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Samat Tatarkhanov, Daniyal Zagirov, Ramazan Zakaryaev and Ali Ramazanov were accused of arms trafficking and organization of a terrorist community.

The "Saint Petersburg Institute of Independent Expertise and Evaluation" has studied the video of the oath and confirmed that there were signs of staging, and that the video was filmed by a leader-manipulator. Besides, according to experts, the defendants read out a text previously prepared by someone," said the advocate.

According to the prosecution, in January 2017, Zakaryaev, Tatarkhanov and Ramazanov created an IS unit, and in June 2018, Zagirov joined them. In August 2018, the members of the unit armed themselves, and in October swore allegiance to the IS, and shortly thereafter they were detained, investigators assert.