Court arrests last of eight suspected IS recruiters detained in St. Petersburg
According to investigators, since November 2015, the suspects were recruiting natives of the Central Asian states to commit terror-related crimes
ST. PETERSBURG, April 7. /TASS/. St. Petersburg’s Oktyabrsky District Court has arrested Kyrgyzstan’s citizen Iskander Nurbayev for two months on suspicion of recruiting people into the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat al-Nusra terror groups outlawed in Russia, a TASS correspondent reports from the courtroom.
Nurbayev is the last of the recently detained eight suspected IS recruiters to be arrested. Kyrgyz nationals, brothers Azizbek and Atabek Rustamov, Uzbekistan’s citizens Zhurabek Muratov, Uula Islambek Oibek, Feruza Inakova and Shukhrat Satymbayev, as well as Russian citizen Bakhadir Madrakhimov were arrested earlier.
According to investigators, since November 2015, the suspects were recruiting natives of the Central Asian states to commit terror-related crimes and take part in the activities of the Islamic State (IS), Jabhat al-Nusra terror groups and other illicit armed groups.
All of them are to face charges under article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (recruitment and involvement of people in terrorist activities). The Russian Investigative Committee said, however, that there currently was no evidence proving any ties between the suspected recruiters and the suicide bomber who carried out the April 3 attack on the St. Petersburg metro.
On the afternoon of April 3, an explosion hit a metro car between Tekhnologichesky Institut station and Sennaya Ploshchad stations in Russia’s city of St. Petersburg. The blast killed 13 people while more than 50 were injured.
The Russian Investigative Committee said that the blast was carried out by Akbardzon Dzhalilov, 22, a native of Kyrgyzstan who had obtained Russian citizenship.