On May 29, FSB officers detained Akhmed Abusupyanov, chairman of the Main Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Rostov Region. He is suspected of collaborating with the At-Takfir wal-Hijra religious organization, which is banned in Russia. A year ago, Abusupyanov negotiated with prisoners in Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 1 in Rostov-on-Don who had taken two Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) employees hostage.
"The activities of the leader of a local Muslim religious organization involved in the dissemination of radical religious ideas have been stopped," the FSB press service told reporters. The FSB did not name the detainee, but included a photo of Akhmed Abusupyanov, a 62-year-old native of Dagestan, who is referred to as the "self-proclaimed mufti" of the Rostov Region.
The "Main Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Rostov Region," which he heads, was registered in 2022 and has no connection to the official structures of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia.
The FSB statement stated that the detainee participated in the work of an extremist international religious organization banned in Russia, "promoted intolerant attitudes toward representatives of other faiths, as well as Muslims of other movements, and provoked conflicts with the official Muslim clergy."
A criminal case was opened against the imam under articles on organizing extremist activity (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and hooliganism (Part 2 of Article 213). According to a source in Kommersant, the second charge concerns an incident in September 2023, when Abusupyanov "along with his supporters attacked a Muslim with whom he had religious disagreements." Last June, Akhmed Abusupyanov acted as a negotiator between security forces and a group of inmates at a Rostov pretrial detention center who declared themselves supporters of the Islamic State and took Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Bogma, head of the regional FSIN operations department, and Viktor Konchakov, a junior duty inspector, hostage.
The negotiations were short-lived. The religious leader tried to reason with the radicals who had carried out the attack on Eid al-Adha. They responded by accusing him of serving the devil and collaborating with the FSB.
Several inmates were killed during the assault, and two suspected hostage-takers survived. Among them was 25-year-old Daniil Kamnev, a Stavropol resident who converted to Islam and was arrested on charges of plotting a terrorist attack at the Kislovodsk police department. He received his 23-year prison sentence after the incident in Pretrial Detention Center No. 1. Among other things, he was found guilty of involvement in the activities of At-Takfir wal-Hijra.
A court in Rostov-on-Don has ordered Akhmed Abusupyanov to be held in custody until July 28.