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Fight against Islamic state

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Defense of Moscow student charged with recruiting for IS to appeal her arrest

Varvara Karaulova did not make any active steps that might fall into this category of offences, lawyers say

Varvara Karaulova Lefortovsky district court press service

Varvara Karaulova

© Lefortovsky district court press service

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Russian police waiting for Moscow student’s explanations about her trip to Turkey, Syria

MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. Lawyers defending Varvara Karaulova, a philosophy student at Moscow Lomonosov State University who made headlines in May while trying to join the ranks of the Islamic State military grouping and who was arrested on Wednesday, October 28, for attempts to recruit fighters for IS, will appeal the court resolution to arrest her, lawyer Alexander Karabanov said.

"We find the court resolution to be ungrounded," he said. "She did not make any active steps that might fall into this category of offences."

Along with it, the lawyer added Varvara’s parents felt apprehensive for her psychic status.

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"The girl’s relatives tell us she is emotionally volatile and they feel alarmed by (the prospects for) her psychic health," Karabanov said.

He also said the girl’s parents and lawyers had signed Article 310 of Russia’s Criminal Code on nondisclosure of the data pertaining to pretrial investigation. "I haven’t signed the document yet and haven’t seen the investigator," he said.

Varvara Karaulova, 19 years-old sprang to notoriety in Russia and abroad at the very end of May when she walked out of her apartment telling her parents she was going to the university but turned up at the airport and boarded a flight for Istanbul.

Operatives from the Turkish office of Interpol detained Karaulova and another twelve Russian citizens during an attempt to cross the Turkish-Syrian border. All of them had supposedly come to trickle into Syria and join the IS militants.

Varvara, who was escorted by her father on the return trip, came back to Moscow from Istanbul on June 12. Upon completion of a formal security check on her the court decided to refrain from instituting a criminal case against her.

On Tuesday, October 27 the court arrested the people who had recruited Karaulova herself and had tried to enmesh her in the IS operations.

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