Press Release
Once Again the Security Apparatus Attempt to Mislead the Public Opinion about Hizb ut Tahrir
(Translated)

On June 1^st, media outlets reported news that members of Hizb ut Tahrir had been arrested in Chelyabinsk. Specifically, Russia 24 news channel and Interfax mentioned that: The Federal Security Service's department (FSB) in the Chelyabinsk Region and the police have detained three activists of the Hizb ut Tahrir international terrorist organization (banned in Russia). And the media spokesman of the FSB in the region stated that three people had been arrested and charges were pressed against them in accordance to the second part of paragraph 205.4 of the criminal code of the Russian Federation. From another point of view, when their residence was being searched, substances were discovered that could possibly be narcotics”.

In the channel’s report a scene from the raid where it was possible to view the copy of the Quran, needles and playing cards around the young man sprawled upon the floor. From this it appears that the security apparatus is attempting, in this manner, to present the stamp (of criminals) upon those arrested in order to distort the reputation of the political and Islamic Hizb ut Tahrir amongst the public opinion.

In our role, we officially declare that those arrested in Chelyabinsk are not members of Hizb ut Tahrir. And once again we clarify that accusing our party with terrorist acts is a pure fabrication and is exclusively built upon the decree of the High Court in 2003 that added Hizb ut Tahrir to the list of terrorist organisations without any justification or evidence.

Just as we consider the appearance of a report such as this upon a federal channel and in other media news outlets is not connected to Chelyabinsk as much as it is connected to the beginning of trial proceedings in the Rustov regional war court where they are looking into the matter of Muslims from Crimea accused of being affiliated to Hizb ut Tahrir. That is in the case where great concern in respect to the public opinion and media outlets is being focused towards this trial within the context of pursuing the Tatar Crimean people, in order to justify the acts of repression against the Muslims of Crimea and to portray that combatting Hizb ut Tahrir has no relationship to the oppression befalling the Tatar of Crimea. The authorities have found no better way other than pouring heaps of other lies about the Hizb within the news media outlets and portraying an image of the arrested as if they are criminals.

At the same time we confirm that in the past, members of Hizb ut Tahrir had in actuality been arrested on a number of occasions due to their Da’wah to Islam and also when public protests campaigns were undertaken against an attempt to prevent one of the books of Tafseer in Russia from being blacklisted which led to the combining of criminal charges and accusations of terrorist acts in addition to the attempt to take over the authority by force and by changing the constitution. And for that reason their names were included within the list of political prisoners detained in Russia.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Russia