MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/. The Russian Investigative Committee has charged in Moscow nine individuals arrested under the criminal case on financing the international terrorist organization Islamic State (IS, outlawed in Russia). Senior Aide to the Head of the Russian Investigative Committee’s Main Investigative Directorate for Moscow Yulia Ivanova told TASS that a Russian who had joined the IS established a group that gathered money for the terrorist organization.

"Upon his return to Russia in 2015, he started looking for people who wanted to offer material help to active participants of the international terrorist organization Islamic State. About 30 joined the association," the representative for the Main Investigative Directorate noted. "Nine perpetrators under the criminal case were charged. A measure of restriction in the form of custody was chosen for them upon the investigators’ motion," she added. "The specified individuals made confession under the weight of the evidence."

Ivanova said that the association’s organizer created a group in a mobile application to which he invited well-tried people who agreed to finance the terrorist organization on the territory of Syria and Iraq. "The organizer talked separately with each member of the group, going with them to the village of Kokoshkino, Moscow Region, where they took the oath to the terrorist organization. After the initiation, new participants had to financially support the specified organization, transferring money on a monthly basis," the official said. The group consisted of about 30 members.

The group’s founder gathered funds on his bank cards; then they were transferred to the accounts of people involved in combat actions within the illegal armed groups. During the investigation into the criminal case, the investigators together with the Russian Federal Security Service and the Main Directorate for Countering Extremism of the Russian Interior Ministry investigated his close ties and identified his accomplices. A criminal case was launched under Part 4 Section 205.1 ("Support for a terrorist organization"), Part 1 and Part 1.1 Section 205.1 and Part 2 Section 205.5 ("Participation in a terrorist organization that was recognized as terrorist under the Russian legislation") of the Russian Criminal Code.

Investigators carried out multiple searches and detentions in Moscow and the Moscow, Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria regions to gather evidence.