Kuban court treats talks about Islam as illegal missionary activities

Ilesbek Baltaev, a citizen of Uzbekistan, has been fined in the Krasnodar Territory (also known as Kuban by the name of the main river) for illegal missionary work; the court has treated talks about Islam and prayers in a prayer room as such work.

The Kavkaz District Court of Kuban has found Ilesbek Baltaev guilty of illegal missionary work and imposed a fine of 30,000 roubles on him, the "Kavkaz.Realii"* project has reported.

According to the protocol, Baltaev organized a prayer room in a temporary extension, where he conducted prayers and talks on the basics of Islam. The case was initiated on the basis of a denunciation sent to the Centre for Countering Extremism. The defendant has pleaded guilty and asked not to be expelled from Russia, since he is in the country legally.

The court has treated his guilt admission as a mitigating circumstance and imposed the minimum sanction on him.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.