MOSCOW, November 23 (RIA Novosti) - Prosecutors in Tatarstan have concluded an investigation into alleged murders and other crimes committed by 17 members of an extremist Islamist group, Russia's Prosecutor General's office said Thursday.
According to investigators, members of Islamic Jamaat committed nine religiously motivated murders, and were also involved in abduction, illegal possession of firearms, inciting religious and racial hatred, money laundering and hooliganism, prosecutors said in a statement.
The statement also said they planned a series of terrorist acts in Tatarstan, a Russian republic on the Volga River.
"They [members of Islamic Jamaat] planned a series of terrorist acts in the Republic of Tatarstan during celebrations of the 1,000th anniversary of Kazan, including bomb blasts in crowded places, in railway stations, at the Kazan helicopter manufacturing plant, at the Nizhnekamsk oil refinery, at the KAMAZ plant, and also to conduct 'jihad' [holy war] in Tatarstan and the Republic of Bashkotorstan, where they set up hideouts with food, weapons, and other military equipment," the document said.
The investigation began in June of 2004. During the arrest of the Islamic Jamaat members, police seized two assault rifles, eight handguns with silencers, seven hand grenades, hunting rifles, explosives, various ammunition and extremist literature, prosecutors said.
In addition, Jamaat members recruited six young people in preparation for terrorist activities. Tatarstan's Supreme Court convicted the six last summer.
The investigation combined 33 different criminal cases and gathered 127 volumes. The case has been sent to Tatarstan's Supreme Court for revision, prosecutors said.
Islamic Jamaat is a clandestine religious group included on Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) blacklist of international terrorist organizations whose activities are banned on Russian territory.
