The Kuzminsky District Court of Moscow has sentenced six people accused of creating a branch of the Nurcular religious association. This was reported on the website of the Moscow Department of the Investigative Committee.
According to the investigation, the defendants for four years, from December 2017 to October 2021, gathered in rented apartments and “studied extremist literature” — books by Turkish theologian Said Nursi , which formed the basis of the Nurcular movement.
Evgeny Tarasov, an individual entrepreneur, in whose apartment the meetings were held, was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in a penal colony. Mukazhana Ksyupova, Parviz Zeynalov, Urdash Abdullayev were sentenced to six years in prison, who were also accused of creating a branch of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). Ilmir Abdullin and Nikolai Nesterovich, who were charged with an article on participation in the work of the department, were assigned two years and seven months in a general regime colony (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).
According to the indictment quoted by Kommersant, Tarasov invited people to his apartment for «a gradual transformation of personality and a change in worldview in accordance with the ideology of the teachings of Said Nursi.» The detainees themselves, according to the publication, did not plead guilty.
In 2008, the Supreme Court recognized the Nurcular organization as extremist. Human rights activists of the SOVA Center and Memorial called the ban on Nurdzhular unreasonable, since the association never existed in Russia, and we are talking only about believers who find Nursi's books. Nursi's followers were previously persecuted in Tatarstan, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk regions.