Members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir Terrorist
Organization Detained

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) – Twelve internationally wanted active members of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir terrorist organization were detained on Russian territory, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said at a press conference in Moscow on Saturday.

"The terrorists were detained in the Moscow and Tyumen regions, Tatarstan, Bashkiria and Udmurtia," the minister noted.

According to him, in 2004 the law enforcement bodies carried out joint operations to find and arrest Hizb-Ut-Tahrir active members in Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The detainees are charged with performing acts of terrorism, committing murders and other grave crimes, Mr. Nurgaliyev said.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir (the Islamic liberation party in Arab) aims to bring Moslems back to the Islamic way of life based on the laws of Sharia and to spread Islam across the world by means of Jihad. The party claims that the accomplishment of these goals is possible by means of recreating a single theocratic caliphate uniting the entire Arab world. The party proclaims Islam as its ideology.