Natives of Chechnya detained in Belgium in case on preparation of terror act

The Belgian prosecutor’s office announced the arrest of seven supporters of the “Islamic State” (IS, a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, – note of the “Caucasian Knot”), suspected of plotting a terror act. Among the detainees are natives of Chechnya.

According to the Belgian prosecutor’s office, the detainees were looking for purchasing weapons, which became the reason for the police special operation. At the same time, no specific plans for a terror act were found with the detainees, the “Interfax” reported.

Three of the detainees are citizens of Belgium, while “almost all” of them are of Chechen origin, and there are also women among the suspects, the French newspaper Le Figaro reports.

The suspects are “about twenty years old,” and some of them have already come to the attention of the law enforcement bodies in connection with minor offenses, the “RTBF” TV Channel reports.

“Such big shows with the arrests of Chechen natives usually quietly dissipate over time due to their far-fetchedness and lack of a crime base,” wrote on his Telegram channel Chechen historian Mairbek Vachagaev, living in France.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in June 2015, the Belgian law enforcement bodies detained 16 natives of Chechnya suspected of extremism. Since the terror acts in Brussels on March 22, 2016, people from Northern Caucasus have faced sweeping accusations of involvement in terrorism, states Sasha Kulaeva, the head of Eastern Europe and Central Asia Department of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).