"Judging by the materials received from the organized crime department, a criminal case has been filed under the Article 'Inciting national, racial or religious hatred' of the Russian Criminal Code," the Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman said.
She stated that the criminal charges had been pressed against an engineer from Belkamneft and an unemployed person who were members of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir extremist organization banned by the Russian Supreme Court in 2003.
"These people distributed the Hizb-ut-Tahrir pamphlets and conducted instigating propaganda," she underlined.
Earlier reports announced that 11 people were detained in the Nizhny Novgorod region in connection with involvement in Hizb-ut-Tahrir activities. During the search, operatives found two grenades and many illegal audio, video and printed materials.
At the end of June, the media reported about the detention of 10 the Hizb-ut-Tahrir activists in Tyumen and Tobolsk (West Siberia).
Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a Sunni Muslim religious-political organization, was founded in 1953 in Jerusalem by an appeals court judge, Taqiuddin al Nabhani. After his death in December, 1977 Palestinian Abdul Kadim Zallum living in Jordan became an amir (leader) of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Its basic aim is struggle with infidels and the organization of a universal caliphate embracing all Islamic countries. The work of Hizb ut-Tahrir is "to carry the Islamic da'wah in order to change the situation of the corrupt society so that it is transformed into an Islamic society."
Officially, the organization is banned practically in all Middle East countries, Germany, Russia and Central Asian countries.
Tajik authorities accuse Hizb-ut-Tahrir in organization of a series of terrorist acts in the republic in March and July 2004.
