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Russian national who transferred about $800,000 to IS detained in Moscow

According to the FSB, the funds collected were turned into cash overseas and were sent for plotting and committing terrorism-related crimes

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. The Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Russian Investigative Committee detained a Russian national, aged 26, who had transferred at least 50 million rubles ($770,000) to the Islamic State, a terrorist organization that is outlawed in Russia, the FSB Center for Public Relations and the Investigative Committee told TASS.

The FSB Center for Public Relations said that the person in custody is Georgy Guyev from Russia’s North Ossetia-Alania Region. "According to investigators, during the period of January 2015 to May 2019, the suspect gathered funds through bank cards and provided financial services to the Islamic State, a terrorist organization that is outlawed on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as to the founder of the Islamic foundation Muhajiroun, Israil Akhmednabiyev, also known as Abu Umar Sasitlinsky (wanted for terrorism - TASS)," the Investigative Committee added.

"As a result of the illegal activity, the persons who took part in combat operations within the international terrorist organization, the Islamic State, received financial transfers totaling at least 50 million rubles [$770,000]," the Investigative Committee reported. According to the FSB, the funds collected were turned into cash overseas and were sent for plotting and committing terrorism-related crimes.

Guyev’s apartment was searched and bank cards, mobile phones with instructions from IS coordinators and extremist literature were found there. "In addition, information on cash flows through the perpetrators’ bank accounts was received by virtue of the criminal case, and contacts between the suspect in custody and members of the international terrorist organization are being investigated, and the received correspondence and information about telephone conversations is being examined and analyzed," the Investigative Committee noted.

The Moscow Central Investigative Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee launched a criminal case under Part 1.1 Section 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Supporting terrorist activity"). The suspect will be held to account and pre-trial restriction will be imposed on him. The joint actions of the FSB, the Investigative Committee, the Interior Ministry and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service made it possible to detect an IS supporter.