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Six members of int’l religious sect banned in Russia convicted

Twelve people, including citizens of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia were detained

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, October 12 (Itar-Tass) —— Six members of the international religious sect Nurjular (light in the Turkic language) were convicted in Nizhny Novgorod.

The Nurjular unit was busted in the Nizhny Novgorod Region last March, the press service of the regional Federal Security Service department told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. Twelve people, including citizens of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia were detained.

The Leninsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod sentenced from eight months to one year in an open prison the masterminds and members of the Nurjular unit. The criminal case was opened under an article of the Russian Criminal Code for forming an extremist organization.

More than 40 extremist books, including the works of the Nurjular founder, Sayed Noursi, were confiscated from them. The Koptevo District Court of Moscow found Noursi’s works extremist in 2007. These books are seeking to fan up religious strife, propagate the exclusiveness, superiority and inferiority of people regarding their attitude to the Islam.

On April 10, 2008, the Russian Supreme Court found the religious sect Nurjular extremist. Nurjular was banned in Russia.

An Azerbaijani citizen has formed a unit of the international religious organization Nurjular in Nizhny Novgorod in 2007-2008. The unit included four people. The detectives from the search police department in the Volga Federal District and the FSB department in the Nizhny Novgorod Region found out that from January 2008 to March 2011 the defendants have opened “a home medrese” in the flat rented in Nizhny Novgorod. They studied the extremist literature with new sect addicts at least twice a week.