In Moscow, the court began to consider the case against six inhabitants of the Russian capital due to reading the books of the Turkish theologian Said Nursi. Among the defendants in the case, the Azerbaijani Parviz Oktai Zeynals and five more people – Evgeny Tarasov, Mukazhan Ksyupov, Urdash Abdullaev, Ilmir Abdullin and Nikolai Nesterovich. They are accused of organizing the activities of an “extremist organization” (part 1 and 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
According to investigators, in 2017, Tarasov created a cell of the Nurjular International Religious Association in Moscow, knowing that the union was recognized in the Russian Federation extremist. In addition, according to the accusation, for four years he did “everything possible” to continue the extremist activity of “Nurjular”.
Including Tarasov began to invite people to his apartment for the “phased transformation of the personality and changing the worldview in accordance with the ideology of the teachings of Said Nursi”, investigators concluded. According to the indictment, these teachings “are aimed at the formation of students’ conviction of certain religious knowledge and views.”
According to the lawyers of the defendants, none of them admits their guilt in extremism. They expect to achieve an acquittal.