The Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Russia finds it necessary to comment on what was published in some Russian media that tried to link the name of the party with the gang (GTA) which is accused of murder and armed robbery against motorists.

At the beginning of December of 2014, some authors pointed to the involvement of members of Hizb ut Tahrir in those criminal acts. Previously, there were some similar attempts and specifically that of the Live News channel, since their report did not deserve the attention because of the obvious absurdity of what has been broadcasted and the lack of gravity of the channel. However, we were surprised when the Rosbalt news agency pointed out that some of the leaders of Security services have claimed on the 2nd of December that one of the gang leaders of GTA is one of the supporters of Hizb ut Tahrir. We did not expect that Subisidnyk website would repeat the publication of this slander after one day.

Here we wish to show the public opinion and the media also that there is absolutely no relationship between any of the members of Hizb ut Tahrir with such matters. What is surprising is that the Russian media, including Subisidnyk has questioned the accuracy of this report of the arrest of one of the members of the gang (GTA), and then they changed their position quickly. We agree with the media in their drawn conclusion from the results that all those gang stories being contradictory versions and absurd, and there is no benefit to go into its details.

We would like to also point out that the rumors about Hizb ut Tahrir’s relationship, the Islamic political party, with a group that differs with it entirely in the nature of work, is the act of unprofessional journalists. Either they are imagining coming out with a huge media outcry, or they unthinkingly repeat publishing the lies of the security services.

In the past positions that indicate lack of professionalism has appeared in some similar situations, we mention what had happened with some of the detainees in the city of Nizhny Novgorod from the citizens of Central Asia. Where security forces two years ago have arrested some of the immigrants and later emerged that the allegations that those detained by the security forces were members of Hizb ut Tahrir, and they were preparing for a large attack in public places in the city. We have spoken about these fabrications in our statement “Refuting and Disproving the Information Published in the Moskovsky Komsomolsk Newspaper in Nizhny Novgorod” dated 17/10/2014 and later confirmed by a member of the Union of Journalists of Russia (Vidadi Abassov), who met with the “terrorists” in Nizhny Novgorod personally.

On 28/11/2014 the Vesti.AZ News website published an article by Vidadi Abassov, entitled “Fear and Interests” where a known figure confirmed that the relationship of these immigrants is not even remotely linked to Hizb ut Tahrir and the attacks. Below is a description of his meeting with them: “When I reached them, there were three immigrants (workers) sitting, the workers narrated to me what happened. “One of the sons of our country collected from us 150 thousand rubles and promised to produce permanent residence documents for us. 3 months passed and he did not provide us with the documents and did not return the money to us, then we told him that we will file a complaint at the police station, that night masked men broke into our houses and stopped us against the wall and searched the apartment, they did not find anything suspicious. Then they gave me a hand grenade and they took a photograph of me, and others took out certain books from one of the drawers and said, ‘You are extremists, and they took us to the police station. We were detained for two days and were released today. We are workers working to get a loaf of bread, what exactly do they want from us?'”

Most certainly real terrorists who were found in possession of a hand grenade will not be released, and as claimed by the security agencies that those involved threatened to blow up all of the city of Nizhny Novgorod!! These words are more convincing than the lies reported in the media of the security services.

We remind journalists to maintain their professional morals and not to succumb to the level of “yellow journalism” by publishing false news and exploitation of fear of Islam which is prevalent in society for personal interests that has no value. In conclusion, we return to Abassov’s article and quote some of his words: “Terrorizing people with Islam now has become a trend and a source of income. They pay to stir emotions related to the fear of Islam, and this is not only in Russia. The country undergoing an economic crisis and the numbers of people who are dissatisfied are increasing, so we have to entertain them!! Even if an immigrant is added or lost, isn’t this so?”

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Russia

Sunday, 15th Safar 1436 AH

07/12/2014 CE

Issue No: 1436 AH /09