Russian human rights groups declared on Friday that thirty percent of the political prisoners in the former communist state are Muslims, calling for an immediate amnesty for all political prisoners.
The day on October 30 was declared Day of the political prisoner in the USSR in 1974.
Memorial and other human rights and community organizations held a meeting with the slogan "Freedom for political prisoners in Russia."
According to IslamNews representative Memorial Bakhrom Khamroev, today the number of political prisoners in Russia is about 100 people. Of these, nearly a third – the Muslims have been convicted for their religious and political views.
Despite Muslims are only 10-15% of the around 145-million Russia, their population among political prisoners corresponds 30 percent.
Russia is home of 20 million officially self-identified Muslims.
Organizers of the rally call for an immediate amnesty for all political prisoners, the review of cases sentenced under Article 282 of the Criminal Code ( "inciting hatred") and the repeal of section 282.2 of the Criminal Code ( "Extremism»).
"Legislation on terrorism and extremism that has been used not to fight these terrorists and extremists, and in the harassment and intimidation" dissidents Khamroev was quoted saying.
We can safely say that this is a sad day and did not become a tribute to history: the political prisoners there are in Russia today.
"Administrative and criminal laws are applied selectively, defects investigations, sometimes blatant, not taken into account in court, accusing the decisions and judgments are scheduled before the hearing.
"As a preventive measure for political and civil activists unjustly and illegally selected deprivation of liberty that can drag on for months and years."
Abuse in Caucasus
Muslim communities are mostly concentrated among minority nationalities residing between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea: Adyghe, Balkars, Chechens, Circassians, Ingush, Kabardin, Karachay, and numerous Dagestani peoples. Also, in the middle of the Volga Basin reside populations of Tatars and Bashkirs, the majority of whom are Muslims.
Amnesty International also said in its 2009 report on Caucasus that so-called the counter-terrorism operation that the Russian authorities declared there gave a green light tohuman right violations by government forces in Chechnya.
One of the most populous regions in the mainly Muslim north Caucasus, Chechnya declared independency after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 but was attacked by Russian forces in two wars since the mid-1990s.
Still low-level insurgency continues in Muslim states controlled by Russia.
Human rights groups have repeatedly accused the authorities of serious abuses including house burning, extra-judicial killings, torture and illegal punishment.
In 2008, high-level Chechen officials, including President Ramzan Kadyrov, made public statements stating that the families of insurgents should expect to be punished unless they convinced their relatives to surrender.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=49281