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The Investigative Committee of Russia finished investigation of a probe into a participant of a terrorist community operating in a penal colony in the Republic of Kalmykia

The Main Investigative Department over the North Caucasian Federal District of the Investigative Committee of Russia in cooperation with the Central Office of the Federal Security Service of Russia, Kalmykia Republican Department of the Federal Security Service of Russia, Main Directorate for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia finished investigation of a probe into the resident of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic Soslan Beev. He is accused of committing offenses under Part 2 of Article 205.4 (participation in a terrorist community), Part 1 of Article 205.1 (inducement to participation in a terrorist community) and Part 1 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of Russia (public calls for terrorist activities and public justification of terrorism).

Investigation established that in the middle of 2013, Shahban Gasanov, born in the Republic of Dagestan, serving a sentence for illegal traffic of firearms in the Penal Colony No. 2013 of the Kalmykia Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, had created a terrorist community in the said colony in order to promote, justify, and support terrorism.

After being released from the Federal Penal Colony No. 2 in 2015, residing in the Republic of Dagestan, Gasanov declared himself as an amir, that is, a leader of an illegal armed formation operating in the Republic of Dagestan. He was subsequently eliminated on March 31, 2015 at encroachment on life of law enforcement officers in Khasavurt, Republic of Dagestan.

From the middle of 2013 to December 16, 2019 over 100 convicted persons from the penal colony became members of the criminal community supporting its aims and goals. In February 2015, Beev, directly, while serving a sentence in the Federal Penal Colony No. 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Republic of Kalmykia for a crime related to secret theft of other people's property committed by him, agreed on offer of the head of the terrorist community Ruslan Surkhaev to participate in the terrorist community and voluntarily joined it.

Beyev was an active member of the terrorist community, was involved in the dissemination of the ideology of radical Islam among convicts, public justification of terrorism and the activities of the terrorist community, distributed materials of extremist and terrorist nature, including prohibited extremist literature and audio-video materials containing calls for extremist and terrorist activities, and also in the involvement of new persons in the terrorist community, their recruitment and teaching religious norms, in order to increase the number of members of the terrorist community or to subsequently provide the terrorist community with assistance and complicity of these persons in its activities, as well as the activities of illegal armed groups and international terrorist organizations that carried out their terrorist activities outside the colony.

In addition to Beev, more than 40 persons are also involved in the case, including the head of Penal Colony No, 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Republic of Kalmykia Pavel Bataev and his former deputy Artur Tsamaev.

Previously, during a search carried out in the Federal Penal Colony No. 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Republic of Kalmykia, extremist literature and symbols of the Islamic State terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation were found and seized in one of its premises.

The investigation gathered enough evidence; therefore, the criminal case against Beev with the approved indictment has been sent to the Southern District Military Court to be tried on the merits.

Previously the Southern District Military Court sentenced Mikhail Zhigunov, Said Suleimanov and Alexander Travinov to long-term penal sentences for participation in the criminal community in the Penal Colony No. 2 of the Kalmykia Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia.

The investigation into other participants is ongoing.