Press Release
Mass Arrests of Shabab of Hizb ut Tahrir in Moscow
(Translated)

On the morning of the 12^th of December, mass arrests of members of Hizb ut Tahrir were conducted in Moscow. On the 7^th of December, the security services provided the media with information about the arrest of 25 fundamentalists from Central Asia and that it has discovered banned materials in their possession during the search. They stressed that the success of the operation came as a result of cooperation between the Russian intelligence services, internal security and special forces. On that evening, the media published as quoted by Moscow court spokesman that 12 of those arrested today are accused of working with Hizb ut Tahrir due to it being a banned organisation inside Russia.

The timing and the repetitive publishing of the news about the arrest of the Muslims indicates that this joint operation came due to their need to create informational pressure upon the backdrop of the investigation into the issue of the funding of these agencies. That is because on the 7^th of December a discussion took place in parliament and decisions about the state budget were taken in respect to the previous three years. To erase the questions about the huge sums that these agencies and have spent in comparison to reduction in spending in the areas where it is obliged for the state to spend upon its citizens, those agencies decided to display their success in the joint action undertaken for the sake of the society’s security and to show that they are “risking” their lives and arresting “criminals”. In the case where the Shabab of Hizb ut Tahrir do not resist with weapons when they are arrested and when it is always possible to discover Islamic cultural material that is banned in Russia, they become a good (or convenient) selection to display the “professionalism” and “success” of the security agencies in their efforts to weaken the “fundamentalists” and “terrorists”. The security agencies know full well that Hizb ut Tahrir has no relationship to “terrorism” and that the decision of the High Court in 2003 to place Hizb ut Tahrir within the list of “terrorist” organisations and that is the only reason for the persecution of the members of the Hizb due to their carrying of the Islamic viewpoint.

Consequently, the Muslims detained by the Moscow court are victims of the violations of the security agencies that have been let loose to do as they please within the hostile Russian policy against Islaam.

Allah Ta’Aalaa says:

﴿وَلاَ يَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ أَنَّمَا نُمْلِي لَهُمْ خَيْرٌ لِّأَنفُسِهِمْ إِنَّمَا نُمْلِي لَهُمْ لِيَزْدَادُواْ إِثْمًا وَلَهْمُ عَذَابٌ مُّهِينٌ﴾

“And let not those who disbelieve ever think that [because] We extend their time [of enjoyment] it is better for them. We only extend it for them so that they may increase in sin, and for them is a humiliating punishment” [Aali ‘Imraan: 178].

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

in Russia